Hazardous waste program may need assist

Pima County could be asking Sahuarita and other government agencies to kick in cash if they want the household hazardous waste collection program to continue.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday reassured Green Valley and Sahuarita residents that the county is funding the Oct. 17 collection in Green Valley, but cautioned that state budget cuts could force the board to revisit the decision.

The board unanimously approved a motion to work with the city of Tucson to seek to obtain funding from other government agencies. The countywide program is administered by the Tucson Fire Department and is budgeted for $612,000 this year, a 10 percent cut from the $680,000 that was originally budgeted for the current (2010) fiscal year. Tucson and Pima County share the cost of the program at eight locations in Pima County, including Sahuarita and Green Valley.

In Green Valley, the program has been in operation for 10 years and is administered by the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council under the auspices of the Tucson/Pima County Household Hazardous Waste Program, and is available to anybody in Pima County.

The program collects everything from automotive fluids to herbicides, toner cartridges and fluorescent light bulbs.

According to county numbers, the Green Valley events are by far the most popular in the county and Tucson, with 1,213 participants bringing in an estimated 24 tons of materials at two events last year. That is double the amount collected at two Raytheon events a year and about four times the amounts collected at the once-a year Himmel Park event in Tucson and the six annual events on the Tohono O’odham Nation.

The Town of Sahuarita has one event a year, and last year 93 people participated, bringing in 3,720 pounds of hazardous waste.

Cutbacks on the county and city levels had earlier forced the cancellation of the twice-annual pickups in Green Valley. However, a memo County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry sent to the Board of Supervisors for Tuesday’s meeting said that the county discovered it actually had the money to fund the event.

The problem was that the Household Hazardous Waste Steering Committee, which controls the budget, made the 10 percent cut based on last year’s budget of $628,800, rather than this year’s larger budget, and so the steering committee eliminated the community collection sites. Once that budget correction was noted, the steering committee reinstated the community collection program, said Michael Gritzuk, director of the county Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department.

Stan Riddle, president of the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council, asked for assurances on future funding, suggesting that heavily-Republican Green Valley gets short-changed on county services and that the Democratic-majority board decides some issues based on politics, not on merit.

“We recognize that we are a donor community. We don’t receive in services what we provide in taxes to Pima County,” Riddle said, later adding, “it is well-known on a number of issues before the Board of Supervisors are made not necessarily on the basis of merits” but because of politics.

Asked to explain that comment by County Board Chairman Richard Elias, Riddle said, “We have three Democrats and two Republicans on the board,” then said, “This is not a political issue.” Elias said he could accept that statement and Riddle resumed his plea for funding.

Supervisor Sharon Bronson said the state has yet to pass a balanced budget and so Pima County may face losing between $7 million and $12 million in state funds. She asked Huckelberry how that potential cost shift would affect funding for the collection program.

He replied, “If there are significant cost shifts by the state, frankly everything we fund is on the table.”

The county board approved a motion that changed the effective date of an agreement with the city to Oct. 14, from Oct. 30., thus making it become effective before the scheduled Oct. 17 waste collection event at Valley Presbyterian Church in Green Valley.