A Missouri county may be giving a longstanding contract with Covanta, Morristown, New Jersey, to a more local company, a report by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal says ().

When Hennepin County purchased the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) next to Target Field in the early 1990s, a contract with Covanta was inherited with it, according to the report. The original contract runs through March 2018. When contract extension negotiations began two years ago and could not be resolved, the county put the work out to bid.

Great River Energy, Maple Grove, Missouri, was preliminarily selected. The bid was approved by a Hennepin County committee and it will go before the full county Board of Commissioners, the report says. If it passes, and if Covanta accepts the terms negotiated by Green River Energy, the company will have 30 days to keep the contract.

The HERC brings in around $1 million per month, the report says, plus additional taxpayer dollars for capital expenses, to Covanta. It turns up to 1,000 tons of municipal solid waste in Minneapolis per day.

The contract, if accepted, will start as soon as March 2018 and run through June 2019. The new deal is less expensive for the county and provides more transparency, the report says.