Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Alaska Waste, the biggest garbage hauler in Anchorage and the Mat-Su, plans a rate hike linked to fuel costs starting next month.

As of Dec. 1, the company will wrap a 4.4 percent fuel surcharge into residential trash pick-up bills for some 43,000 customers in Anchorage, Eagle River and Girdwood.

About 7,500 Mat-Su customers will see a 7.5 percent surcharge due to the added cost of running trucks to spread-out homes and fewer overall customers, a company official said.

Alaska Waste customers in Anchorage currently pay an average of $16 a month, while customers in the Mat-Su pay $21.

Alaskans watching the price of oil plummet might wonder why the utility is pinning a rate change to high fuel costs now.

Alaska Waste is basing the surcharge on past diesel costs before oil prices started dropping, said chief operating officer Jeff Riley. Given current trends, Riley said the surcharge would probably drop when the company revisits it next March.

"The fuel cost is coming down, and it looks like our cost is coming up but it'll adjust accordingly," he said. "The last 90 days were the highest period of fuel expense we had."

The company reported that fuel costs in the Anchorage area increased by approximately $934,000 a year while Mat-Su area fuel costs rose by roughly $140,000, according to a letter from Regulatory Commission of Alaska's chairman, Robert Pickett.

The commission on Nov. 3 granted the surcharge on an interim basis. Regulators will review the surcharge as part of a larger filing due from Alaska Waste next July.

"If the fuel surcharge is not reasonable, they may be asked to refund those to the customer," said Grace Salazar, commission spokeswoman.

At least one other trash hauler already factors fuel costs into residential trash bills.

Big Lake-based Raven Refuse started charging a 5 percent surcharge to its 700 residential customers at least two months ago, said owner Sean Bradley.

The small company could respond faster to high diesel costs because Raven didn't need state permission, Bradley said. That means Raven can also respond faster to the falling price of diesel.

"Fact is, it keeps going down, we'll probably have to take (the surcharge) away," he said. "Which is not a bad thing."

Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call 352-6711.

ADVERTISEMENT