Reply #4: Harrisburg, Pa., Incinerator Burns Hole In City Pocket [View All]

[FarCenter]

The city of Harrisburg, Pa., is in trouble — big trouble. Like so many American homeowners, Harrisburg is underwater and deeply in debt with no easy or even clear way out.

And most of its financial troubles can be traced to the city’s incinerator.

Officially called the Harrisburg Resource Recovery Facility, the incinerator converts trash into power. But over the years what it's done best is burn cash.

"There's nothing in the industry that even reflects the kind of financial structure that this facility is in," says Jim Klecko, a regional vice president for Covanta Energy – the company under contract to operate the facility.

While many of the nation's incinerators are nearly paid off, the one in Harrisburg is roughly $300 million in the hole. It's the result of years of bad decisions and bad luck. Klecko says the facility is working better now than it ever has, even operating at a profit. That is, if the debt is not calculated in.

"If you ran at peak efficiency, 100 percent all of the time, just by pure volume, you couldn't process that much waste in a facility of this size to make their debt service," he says.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127865023