Like many towns in Massachusetts, Bourne landfilled its waste at various sites around town for as far back as anyone can remember. The present landfill site off of MacArthur Boulevard began operations in the late 1960s and was operated under the direction of the Department of Public Works (DPW.) In the early 1980s the Town chose not to join other Cape communities in sending its waste to the SEMASS waste-to-energy facility in Rochester, MA. Instead, it was decided to continue landfilling in Bourne and to fully develop the present facility.
After several years of permitting in the early to mid 1990s, the Town received permission to construct Phase 2, (the first lined landfill cell), which would receive Bourne’s waste. However, after careful review with a team of consultants, public input and consultation with regulatory officials, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) decided to develop this cell and the remaining site-assigned landfill acreage as a regional, non-Municipal Solid Waste (non-MSW) landfill. This allows the facility to accept construction and demolition materials (C&D), bulky items and various other waste streams, but not household trash. Bourne’s household trash, or Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), would no longer be accepted at the facility and instead would be sent to SEMASS under a long-term contract. The factors behind this decision include the increasing costs to construct and operate a landfill for Bourne’s small amount of household waste, the severe shortage of regional landfill space for non-MSW as town dumps closed and financial benefits to the Town.
In 1997, the BOS issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for private sector companies to run the landfill and solid waste operations. After reviewing two proposals, the BOS ultimately favored the Town maintaining control of the operations.
As the Town prepared to expand its operations to a regional market, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) made it clear that the standards applied to large waste management firms would be applied to the Town’s facility. To appropriately manage such a facility, as well as upgrade to a lined landfill, it became apparent that the Town needed to have a department exclusively dedicated to managing a modern integrated operation. Therefore, in 1998 the Town petitioned the state legislature to officially form ISWM as a new department. The bill passed both houses and was signed into law by the Governor in 1999.
ISWM is a separate, fully self-funded department. Finances are managed in what is called the ISWM Enterprise Fund (Enterprise Fund.) This is a special municipal accounting mechanism that completely separates ISWM finances from the rest of the Town’s finances that are managed through the Town General Fund (General Fund.) Therefore, ISWM does not rely on taxes to fund its budget. Revenues are mainly derived from customers using the facility who pay a tip fee per ton, as well as through the sale of recyclables, grants and interest income. This arrangement has been carefully reviewed and approved by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR.)
Generally, money from the Enterprise Fund cannot be sent directly to the General Fund. However, DOR has authorized transfer of funds to the General Fund as reimbursement, (Administrative Overhead), for services rendered by other Town departments. In addition, the Governor signed Host Community Fee legislation allowing ISWM to transfer fees to the General Fund for every ton of material it accepts according to a pre-determined formula. This transfer became effective in January 2001. In addition to its own expenses, ISWM also pays for several services of the Town as part of its off-budget line items. All of these items are listed in the Financial Highlights section of this report.
Since 1997 all household trash has been transferred to the SEMASS waste-to-energy incinerator in Rochester, MA via specialized railroad cars that are filled at a jointly owned transfer station on Otis Air National Guard Base. This facility is known as the Upper Cape Regional Transfer Station (UCRTS) and is owned by the towns of Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee and Sandwich. In 2001, Bourne sent a little over 5,800 tons of MSW to SEMASS.
Today, ISWM provides solid waste management services such as recycling, (1,605 tons in FY 2001), composting, waste processing, and landfilling to Bourne, as well as surrounding communities and businesses on Cape Cod and southeastern MA. ISWM operations are located on 103 acres off of Route 28, 78 of which are site-assigned as a landfill. It is permitted to accept an average of 400 tons per day in the landfill, with a ceiling of 500 tons on any given day, and a combined total of 825 tons of material at the facility that can be variously managed or processed. In calendar year 2001, ISWM landfilled about 104,500 tons compared to about 128,500 tons in calendar year 2000. The remaining 25 acres were purchased in March 2001 and are in the process of being site-assigned for solid waste handling operations to accommodate a possible waste processing facility, new residential recycling center and an expanded recyclables processing facility. In addition, this area will be used for new ISWM and DPW offices, as well as storage and maintenance facilities. Currently, it is being used for composting operations.