Trash bills in Fountain Valley are headed up this summer, and city leaders say they are taking the least painful route available.
The Fountain Valley City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to sign on to Orange County Waste & Recycling’s new Waste Infrastructure System Enterprise, or WISE, agreement and to alert residents to a five-year rate schedule, according to the Los Angeles Times. City staff projects the county disposal rate will jump from about $43.76 per ton now to $67 per ton on July 1. That increase is expected to bump the average monthly residential bill by roughly $2.56 on that date, with smaller hikes in the next two fiscal years. Staff also warned that cities that do not adopt the WISE agreement by April 30 could see disposal rates as much as 10% higher.
What the WISE deal actually does
County negotiators offered two basic pricing options: one that simply tracks inflation and one that phases in the higher costs. The Orange County Sanitation District’s agenda packet outlines the phased “Option 2” that many jurisdictions have chosen. It starts at $67 per ton, builds in stepped increases over the next two years, then shifts to annual inflation-based adjustments, and includes an optional Organic Services Agreement to expand organics processing capacity. Orange County Sanitation District records detail those pricing paths and the broader WISE framework.
Local leaders’ take
Public Works Director Scott Smith told the council that “the landfill fees are going to increase on July 1” no matter what, describing the WISE pact as a negotiated compromise that softens what could have been a much steeper one-time spike, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Councilman Glenn Grandis pointed back to years when some county landfills accepted out-of-county trash, arguing that practice helped create the pressure behind the current rate crunch.
Why the county says it’s needed
OC Waste & Recycling pitches the WISE agreement as a way to modernize how landfills are financed, shore up long-term in-county disposal capacity and help pay for organics processing, all while keeping some revenue sharing from imported waste. The agency has been gearing up for SB 1383 organics rules and says the new deal will help fund infrastructure such as greeneries and organics facilities, according to OC Waste & Recycling…