THE Department of Public Works will solicit comments from the members of the community regarding the proposed “adjustment” to the tipping fee for solid waste management.
In an interview on Wednesday, DPW Secretary Ray N. Yumul said the Solid Waste Management Division headed by Blas Mafnas will prepare a proposal and seek public comments before making a decision on whether or not to implement it.
Yumul said last year’s tipping fee collection “totaled around just shy of $1 million.”
During a budget hearing conducted by the House Committee on Ways and Means on Tuesday, Mafnas said his division is “contemplating on increasing it,” referring to the tipping fee. He said the Solid Waste Management Division is “in a very critical stage where we need funding.”
The increase in the tipping fee, Mafnas said, will help recover the loss of allotments due to the suspension of earmarks in the budget. He said it will also help the division realize the zero-waste initiative that the U.S Environmental Protection Agency is requiring the CNMI to implement.
However, he said whether the fee-hike proposal will be supported or not, “remains to be seen.” He acknowledged that there is still a lot of discussion that needs to be done “and hopefully we can come up with a favorable decision.”
In his fiscal year 2024 budget submission, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios proposes $2.8 million for DPW, which is requesting $8 million. Of this amount, $5 million is for the Solid Waste Management Division. The division said this includes $3.2 million for “professional services” and $125,000 for machinery, tools and equipment.
Yumul said the biggest item in DPW’s budget proposal is operations. But the department will operate based on its ability to maximize its resources, he added.
Ray Yumul
