§ 17.1 - Industrial development bonds used to provide solid waste disposal facilities; temporary rules.

(a) In general. Section 103(c)(4)(E) provides that section 103(c)(1) shall not apply to obligations issued by a State or local governmental unit which are part of an issue substantially all the proceeds of which are used to provide solid waste disposal facilities. Section 1.103-8(f) of this chapter provides general rules with respect to such facilities and defines such facilities. In the case of property which has both a solid waste disposal function and a function other than the disposal of solid waste, only the portion of the cost of the property allocable to the function of solid waste disposal (as determined under paragraph (b) of this section) is taken into account as an expenditure to provide solid waste disposal facilities. A facility which otherwise qualifies as a solid waste disposal facility will not be treated as having a function other than solid waste disposal merely because material or heat which has utility or value is recovered or results from the disposal process. Where materials or heat are recovered, the waste disposal function includes the processing of such materials or heat which occurs in order to put them into the form in which the materials or heat are in fact sold or used, but does not include further processing which converts the materials or heat into other products.

(b) Allocation. The portion of the cost of property allocable to solid waste disposal is determined by allocating the cost of such property between the property's solid waste disposal function and any other functions by any method which, with reference to all the facts and circumstances with respect to such property, reasonably reflects a separation of costs for each function of the property.

(c) Example. The principles of this paragraph may be illustrated by the following example:

Example.

Company A intends to construct a new facility to process solid waste which City X will deliver to the facility. City X will pay a disposal fee for each ton of solid waste that City X dumps at the facility. The waste will be processed by A in a manner which separates metals, glass, and similar materials. As separated, some of such items are commercially saleable; but A does not intend to sell the metals and glass until the metals are further separated, sorted, sized, and cleaned and the glass is pulverized. The metals and pulverized glass will then be sold to commercial users. The waste disposal function includes such processing of the metals and glass, but no further processing is included.

The remaining waste will be burned in an incinerator. Gases generated by the incinerator will be cleaned by use of an electrostatic precipitator. To reduce the size and cost of the electrostatic precipitator, the incinerator exhaust gases will be cooled and reduced in volume by means of a heat exchange process using boilers. The precipitator is functionally related and subordinate to disposal of the waste residue and is therefore property used in solid waste disposal. The heat can be used by A to produce steam. Company B operates an adjacent electric generating facility and B can use steam to power its turbine-generator. B needs steam with certain physical characteristics and as a result A's boilers, heat exchanger and related equipment are somewhat more costly than might be required to produce steam for some other uses. The disposal function includes the equipment actually used to put the heat into the form in which it is sold.

Company A intends to construct pipes to carry the steam from A's boiler to B's facility. When converted to such steam the heat is in the form in which sold, and therefore the disposal function does not include subsequent transporting of the steam by pipes. Similarly, if A installed generating equipment and used the steam to generate electricity, the disposal function would not include the generating equipment, since such equipment transforms the commercially saleable steam into another form of energy.