Agenda - Council - 09/13/1982 - Special

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I I I I I I I I I I I 22 TIED IMPACT PAYMENTS These payments are earmarked to compensate a community or individuals for a particular impact. For example, a tied-impact payment could cover the costs of road repairs made necessary by the added truck traffic to and from a waste dis- posal facility. Similarly, a facility owner or operator may agree to pay for independent monitoring of the groundwater. This would cover the community's expense of hiring a consultant to provide an independent assessment of ground- water and its drinkability. The city may want the facility owner to pay for hiring an inspector to ensure the landfill operation complies with state and local regulations. CONTINGENCY FUNDS Contingency funds ensure that money will be available should adverse impacts occur from operations of waste disposal facilities or after their closure. Examples of contingency funds include liability insurance on a facility during operation and after closure, surety bonds and emergency response funds. The value of contingency funds is that they ensure compensation for adverse impacts, even though it may not be possible to assign dollar values to risks associated with waste disposal facilities. The contingency fund serves, in effect, as insurance against such risks, with compensation paid when adverse impacts occur. Another advantage of a contingency fund is that it can be used without having to file legal claims. Contingency funds can be used to address impacts occurring during a facility's operation and after it is closed. These impacts include property damage, loss in property value, adverse health effects, natural resource damage, temporary or permanent relocation costs for local residents, costs of long-term monitor- ing of local water supply wells, cost of providing alternate water supplies and costs of cleaning up accidents at a facility. Contingency funds could cover a variety of different costs, such as road repair on haul routes and property value guarantee'for residents living near a facility. The flexibility of such a fund makes it a valuable compensation technique. Contingency funds could be established in three ways. The first method would require the facility developer and/or operator to create a fund. The second would be to assess a charge on the waste entering the fill to build up a fund. The third would be a combination of both. The advantage of this last method over the other two is that the financial burden and responsibility for any risks associated with the facility operation are shared equitably between the facility owner or operator and the public who benefit from the-facility. A disadvantage of having only the public provide for the contingency fund is that the facility owner or op6rator may be less accountable for damages. A shared- risk approach would alleviate this problem.