Selectmen Sign Contract With CRRA

It took a new set of rules and the projection of even lower prices, but in the end, the Board of Selectmen unanimously approved a new 15-year contract with Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA), the trash guys.

CRRA is the state agency that ultimately processes the trash and recyclables from client towns in Connecticut. It was established by the state in 1973 to modernize Connecticut’s solid waste disposal. According to their website, CRRA’s mission is to work for – and in – the best interests of the municipalities under contract with them. 

The town of Clinton, along with 70 other towns in the state, uses CRRA’s Mid-Connecticut facility in Hartford as the final destination for its trash and recyclables. 

According to CRRA, the Mid-Connecticut Project consists of a 2,850 ton-per-day refuse-derived fuel trash-to-energy facility, four transfer stations, the landfill, a regional recycling center and the CRRA Trash Museum.

Clinton has been in a contract with CRRA since 1984. That contract expires November 15, 2012.

The town pays $69 a ton at present to CRRA. Paul Nonnenmacher, Director of Public Affairs for CRRA, said the new price is $59.50 with the hopes that it will continue to drop to $57.00 in 2017.

CRRA has come a long way since its 2003-2004 scandal involving an unsecured loan to Enron Corporation.  In 2007, representatives from 69 towns went to court in an attempt to recoup $50 million in increased garbage tipping fees paid to CRRA and the Mid-Conn facility as a result of the agency’s financial deal with the now-collapsed Enron Corporation.   

“It's a new administration and a much improved one than it was,” said First Selectman Willie Fritz.

Today, things have changed: there is no longer a credit pledge on behalf of towns to CRRA; there are no minimum commitments to the amount of trash CRRA will process for towns; and there are monetary rebates for recyclables.

Peter Neff, director of the town’s , which oversees the transfer facility, said the amount of recyclables in town has increased about 15 to 20 percent from years ago.

Nonnenmacher said the company has changed its pricing system.

“We charge you what it costs us to run the system,” he said.

Neff and Fritz said that they researched other options besides CRRA and they proved too expensive.

“From an operational standpoint, we can’t beat going to Essex,” said Neff. Clinton's trash is brought to the CRRA facility at 10 Dump Road in Essex.

“If we had to transport our trash to Hartford, we’d have to buy trucks and the fuel,” said Fritz.

Other reasons for the better pricing, Nonnenmacher pointed out, include the fact that CRRA has paid off its debt service and they now sell their power from their massive trash-to-energy facilities.