Bond buyers will soon have the chance to help Napa boost its recycling efforts – by funding a program meant to cope with increasing amounts of compost and tighter environmental regulations.
The City Council on Tuesday approved borrowing $12.5 million over the next two decades to upgrade Napa’s materials diversion center, which has handled organic and other wastes since the early 1990s. Napa will issue the taxable bonds Sept. 28, with closing set for Oct. 20.
The largest share of the funding, $7.5 million, will be devoted to creating a covered composting system at the city’s recycling hub on Levitin Way south of town. Improving the breakdown of organics is considered a key for Napa to handle increasing amounts of food scraps, which it added to its trash-hauling program last year in hopes of raising its recycling rate from 65 percent as of 2015 to 75 percent by 2020.
New concrete bunkers would hold fresh organic waste, which would then be covered with finished compost as a filter to improve air quality and block rainfall. Air blowers and monitors would be added to govern the composting process, which would take about 45 days to fully break down organic material.
Bond funds also will pay for improvements to storm drainage at the Levitin Way facility, and later a roof extension over the composting area to reduce contamination of stormwater.
Although Napa has steadily reduced the amount of refuse winding up in landfills, its state solid-waste permit sets a 2018 deadline to move away from its current, open-air composting and to enclose the process.
After paying $260,000 in interest during the current fiscal year ending in June 2017, Napa is expected to make bond payments $850,000 annually through 2036, or 4.6 percent of the city’s waste collection revenue, according to Finance Director Roberta Raper.
While no future customer rate hikes were discussed Tuesday, a 4.6 percent increase from current rates would bring the monthly cost from $27.14 to $28.39 for a household using a 35-gallon trash tote.
To read the full story, visit http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napa-to-borrow-million-to-modernize-composting/article_3d9a0541-94e9-57b0-b0dd-dfcfd251ce35.html.