The Sherburne County Board of Commissioners agreed last week they didn’t have enough time or information to make a decision whether to help bail out the Great River Energy (GRE) Resource Recovery Plant.

 

The plant burns solid waste generated in Sherburne, Anoka and Hennepin counties to produce energy that can power up to 25,000 homes. 

 

In April, plant manager Matt Herman told the board the project had been losing money for several years and is no longer sustainable. The project was over $11 million in the red in 2017, and the outlook wasn’t good for the future.

 

The main issue was the volume of trash it was receiving. Herman said in order to break even, the facility had to burn at capacity - 320,000 tons a year. But over the past two years, it burned 260,000 tons.

 

At that time, the GRE board was deciding whether to close the facility unless another solution could be found.

 

Representatives from the three counties met with GRE to look at different options. Last week, Sherburne County Solid Waste Administrator Dave Lucas presented GRE’s latest proposal to the commissioners. 

 

Under the proposal, GRE would transfer the facility, which includes the energy recovery station, resource processing plant and the Becker ash landfill, to the three counties for $1. GRE would create GRE LLC, which would take in all current employees and be responsible for operation and maintenence contracts, service agreements and retain ownership of inventory, tools and mobile equipment.

 

All current municipal solid waste contracts would transfer to the counties.

 

The two-year proposal would give GRE time to try to negotiate a sale to a private company.

 

But members of the board had some major concerns about the proposal, the biggest being a lack of waste tonnage to burn. They felt the facility would continue to lose money without contracts guaranteeing enough municipal solid waste. And the other two counties would also have to agree to the proposal.

 

There was also the timeline. GRE was asking the counties for a formal purchase agreement by Nov. 15.

 

Members of the board agreed that wasn’t enough time to due research on the condition of the facility or to enter into an agreement. They had no idea how much it would cost the county just to find out all the legal and technological ramifications of entering into such an agreement.

 

Commissioner Felix Schmiesing said Sherburne County would be just a small player in the deal.             

 

“We have big national company and a large power company and they’re asking us to be the lug nut that holds the deal together,” he said. “I don’t think we’re in a position to do that.” 

 

The board directed Lucas to go back to GRE and ask for more time while county staff does reasearch on costs.