Silver State maintains lock on sludge contract

Erin Neff

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2000 | 11 a.m.

Garage sale fans often proclaim that one man's trash is another's treasure.

If the adage is applied to the lucrative business of garbage hauling, some residents and businesses believe that one company should not have total control of burying such treasure.

Residents and companies are beginning to question why the Las Vegas City Council seems poised to award Republic Silver State Disposal Services another sludge contract Wednesday without putting the service out for bids.

One man claims he will remain on a hunger strike until the process is opened to competition. And a national recycling company says fairness mandates the council allow it to present a proposal that calls for recycling that specific type of waste.

But the city is determined to get Silver State to ink a sludge contract, calling it the best they could do.

"This is a good contract," City Manager Virginia Valentine said. "We should approve this posthaste."

The contract, worth an estimated $1.5 million annually, would be for five years with one optional five-year renewal.

Sludge or biosolids are the byproduct of wastewater sewage treatment. The city's Wastewater Treatment Facility produces about 164 to 274 wet tons of sludge per day -- or about 60,000 to 100,000 wet tons annually.

The city will pay Silver State $15 for every wet ton of sludge the company hauls to its Apex landfill. Under the proposed contract, the charge will be adjusted to the Consumer Price Index beginning in January 2002.

The city would also retain the right to donate or sell some of its sludge to third parties, provided it gives Silver State at least 164 wet tons each day.

Since the old sludge contract expired last October, Silver State's renewal has come before the council six times. Each time Silver State has requested, and been granted, an abeyance.

"For the past six months we've been coming down here only to see them hold it in abeyance," said Ryan Williams, president of Western Elite Inc., a recycling firm in Lincoln County. "We think it's just a stall tactic by the company to get us to go away."

Williams' father, Ron Williams, told the council as much on Feb. 16 when he asked them not to agree to another abeyance. As part of a peaceful protest at the podium, Ron Williams proclaimed he would begin a hunger strike until the council opened the process for competition.

Western Elite has been sued by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, which alleges the company has taken in eight times more trash than its facility is designed to handle.

Ryan Williams said he and his father are not protesting Silver State in order to get a piece of its business.

"We're not asking for them to give it to us. We're just asking for them to put it out to bid," Ryan Williams said.

Kelly Sarber, vice president for market development and acquisitions for Houston-based Synagro, does want a piece of the city's sludge.

"Our company has been trying to get business here for a long time," said Sarber, whose publicly traded company recycles sludge products and resells them to golf courses, landscapers and related businesses as mulch. "Hopefully, the City Council won't feel, out of sheer pressure and panic, that they should have to award (the contract) to (Silver State)."

The city's finance department did not have immediate access Wednesday to records about whether Silver State does pay a franchise fee on its existing sludge contract.

Valentine said the whole issue is confusing, in part, because of the city's antiquated code. Both Valentine and Deputy City Attorney Larry Bettis suggested that changing some of the language in the code -- especially as it relates to sludge or medical waste -- would help alleviate some of the confusion.

City Councilman Gary Reese said Wednesday he is concerned not with the contract or the fees but with why Silver State has requested so many abeyances.

"There are people there to speak for the item or against the item, and when a company keeps asking for abeyances, it doesn't give them the chance to be heard," Reese said.

If Silver State asks for an abeyance Wednesday, Reese said he will not accept it.

Silver State's general counsel, Robert Groesbeck, said the last abeyance was requested because he was out of town. The contract vote was held other times, he said, so that his company could comply with city disclosure regulations.

Silver State filed the appropriate disclosure information back in January.

"It's complex and we wanted to be sure we had reported everything correctly," Groesbeck said.

Las Vegas resident Al Gallegos, who attends almost all of the council's various committee and full meetings, said he can't understand why the board would shut out competition.

"Some of these companies want to recycle the sludge," Gallegos said. "I think that's better than having it sit up in that landfill."

Erin Neff covers Las Vegas government for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4062 or 229-6436, or by e-mail at erin@lasvegassun.com