A local trash-to-energy plant that Fairfax County is considering buying turned out to cost much more than officials had expected. An assessment of the I-95 Energy/Resource Recovery Facility, more commonly known as the Lorton incinerator, determined that the facility is worth about $418 million, almost $200 million more than county officials anticipated. The County Board of Supervisors requested the assessment to determine the feasibility of buying it rather than continuing to work with the private contractor that has operated the plant for 20 years.
Overall, three audits were conducted, one by Fairfax County, one by Covanta Fairfax Inc., the incinerator’s owner and operator, and a third by an independent auditor mutually chosen by Covanta and the county.
The final figure, $418 million, represents an average of two audits closest in value: Covanta’s and the independent audit. Fairfax County’s own audit estimated the incinerator’s value at $220 million.
The county has 90 days to decide if it wants to purchase the incinerator. County staff will come back to the board in January with additional advice on the assessment.
If the county doesn’t purchase the plant during the 90-day period, it will lose that option, said board Chairwoman Sharon Bulova.
“Then Covanta owns the plant on county land, but we have then no control over Covanta’s increasing prices or who they accept trash from, including ourselves,” she said.
Fairfax County for the past 20 years has been sending some of its trash to be incinerated at Covanta’s plant. Under a current arrangement, the county pays Covanta a tipping fee, a per-ton charge for disposing of the garbage.
A new contract could extend Covanta’s operation of the facility through 2036, and Supervisor Pat Herrity, R-Springfield, said the county should seek to renew an agreement that has been a cost-effective method of trash disposal.
“Why would we want to spend our scarce capital dollars to buy a trash incinerator when we’ve got an arrangement that’s been working for the county for the last 20 years?” said Herrity.
The county ceased contract negotiations with Covanta while the assessment was being done. Records show the county and Covanta are about $2.50 apart on the per-ton tipping fee. If the facility processed the amount of trash stated in the proposed contract — 850,000 tons of trash per year — the difference would amount to about $2.1 million annually.
