Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. In addition to any other power conferred by law, and notwithstanding the provisions of sections three and four of chapter forty of the General Laws, the city of Somerville may from time to time, with the approval of the department of environmental quality engineering, contract for the operation by others of its municipal incinerator, or may from time to time, with like approval, lease the same to others for operation by them either as an incinerator or as some other type of facility for the disposal or refuse, garbage or waste, and may contract, with the approval of the department of environmental quality engineering, with any such operator for the disposal of refuse, garbage or waste, or for any of the foregoing, or for the purchase or use of by-products or residue resulting from the operation of such facility. All other cities, towns and other public agencies, with the approval of the emergency finance board, and private parties are also authorized from time to time to contract with the city of Somerville or with any such operator for the disposal of refuse, garbage and waste, or for any of the foregoing, or for the purchase or use of by-products or residue resulting from the operation of such facility. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, contracts hereunder may include provisions for the delivery of minimum amounts of refuse, garbage and waste and payments for the use of such facility to be based thereon, unit prices, which may be graduated, and adjustments thereof. Any such contract or lease by a city or town, including the city of Somerville, may be entered into by the appropriate officers acting under general authorization of the city council, board of aldermen or town meeting, and may run for a period not exceeding twenty years from the date of the contract or lease.

Notwithstanding the language of the previous sentence, if such a contract or lease has been entered into by the city of Somerville, then the city of Somerville may modify the conditions and extend the term of any such contract or lease in order to provide for the modification of existing facilities and for the construction and operation of a resource recovery facility that will dispose, recycle or both dispose and recycle municipal solid waste. Such extensions and modifications may provide for the continued operation of a transfer station in conjunction with a resource recovery facility. Such extensions and modifications may be entered into by the appropriate officers acting under the general authorization of the board of aldermen, and, such extensions may run for an additional period not exceeding fifteen years from the original expiration date of such contract or lease.

A contract or lease by a city or town hereunder shall not be precluded by the acceptance of section nine A of chapter ninety-two of the General Laws. Neither the city of Somerville nor any person operating such facility under contract or lease shall be required to pay any property taxes or assessments levied pursuant to chapter fifty-nine of the General Laws on any real or personal property included in such facility or any sales, use of similar tax on the sale, use, storage or consumption of any personal property in such operations; provided, however, that such contract or lease shall provide for payments to the city in lieu of taxes and assessments, which payments, for waste processed in the resource recovery system, shall be calculated in accordance with the provisions of section twenty-four A of chapter sixteen of the General Laws, including any amendments thereto in force and effect prior to June first, nineteen hundred and eighty-five.

SECTION 2. If the provisions of this act conflict with the provisions of chapter eight hundred and four of the acts of nineteen hundred and seventy-four the provisions of this act shall be deemed to prevail.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage.