Local News in Brief : Energy Plant Funding Lost

Pacific Waste Management Corp. has lost its financing for a proposed waste-to-energy plant in Irwindale with the redemption of the project’s $395-million bond issue.

Mark White, a senior vice president, said the bonds were redeemed after Pacific Waste was unable to obtain a legal opinion affirming that interest payments to bondholders would remain tax exempt.

The Irwindale Resource Recovery Authority sold the bonds in December, 1984, to finance a plant that would burn 3,000 tons of trash a day. The project drew strong opposition from neighboring cities and community groups, and the state Energy Commission in April rejected Pacific Waste’s application to build the plant.

Pacific Waste announced recently that it would try to build a smaller plant, but Irwindale City Manager Charles Martin said he believes that the collapse of the financing plan has killed the project. White said the company is looking at financing alternatives.