Why did the consultant team insist on using blended rates in all financial modeling summaries?
This technique was widely believed by SWAC members to be misleading and to improperly show the current regional system to be the best economic model for the region. The financial model does not use blended rates. The financial model includes a summary which shows two industry standard units for comparing solid waste strategy costs: levelized tipping fees and life-cycle costs. The use of these units was discussed at length at several SWAC meetings and with the City of Spokane and Spokane County. Levelized tipping fees illustrate the overall impact to all generators in the county to show whether or not there were net cost increases or decreases associated with those strategies that would break apart the regional system. Since estimating costs for individual jurisdictions would be much more difficult and would depend on a host of assumptions about how each individual system would be operated, County-wide solid waste plans do not include such estimates. For the most part, it was agreed tha
