Federal Interstate Waste Control Legislation: House Bill 1213

ACTION ALERT:

Pennsylvania has 3 Congresspeople on the Energy and Commerce Committee, where the bill sits. Even if you don't live in one of their districts, they still represent you on this committee.

Please call the following PA Congresspeople: 

Jim Greenwood 202-225-4276
Mike Doyle    202-225-2135
Joseph Pitts  202-225-2411

Ask them to support the Virginia Amendments to HB1213 proposed by Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis.

Also, ask that an additional amendment be introduced to ensure that any wastes banned from landfills and incinerators are not allowed to slip through the cracks of deregulation. New York's sewage sludge should not be pushed out of our landfills only to end up on our farm fields and in our strip mines and "composting" plants. Many industrial waste streams are being put to uses which are more of a public health threat than even landfills are. The bill needs a safety net to prevent it from making these problems worse.

Jump down to: Greenwood Bill Explanation | Congressional Process

For the first time in several years, Congress is seriously considering legislation to control interstate waste shipments.

House Bill 1213 was introduced by Pennsylvania Republican Jim Greenwood, who represents Bucks County - home to 3 Waste Management Inc. facilities (2 landfills and an incinerator -- permitted to accept a total over more than 20,000 tons per day). Bucks County leads the state in waste imports and the state leads the nation. Unfortunately, due to the loophole about host community agreements, Greenwood's bill would do nothing for his own district - a district that receives 30% of the Pennsylvania's waste imports.

HB 1213 - as written - would do just about nothing to address the waste importation crisis facing Pennsylvania and Virginia (the top 2 waste importers). Activists in Virginia have worked hard to write amendments to the bill to strengthen it and make it do what it's supposed to do. Virginia Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis is introducing these amendments and they need our support.

Without the Virginia amendments, most Pennsylvania landfills and incinerators would likely be seen as "specifically authorizing" out-of-state waste. The amendments would strengthen the definition of "specifically authorizes" so that the bill would be meaningful, causing Pennsylvania's waste facilities to go through a public process of changing a host community agreement if they wanted to continue accepting out-of-state waste.

The Virginia amendments would also include additional waste streams not covered under the Greenwood bill, such as sewage sludge, ash, contaminated soil, medical waste and anything else that is dumped in municipal solid waste landfills or incinerators.

Greenwood Bill Explanation

The Greenwood Bill would amend the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act to say the following:

  1. No landfill or incinerator may accept out-of-state municipal solid waste unless they are deemded to be in compliance with applicable Federal and State laws and:
    1. there is a host community agreement in place which vaguely states that waste can come from anywhere or from out-of-state (the facilities which don't have these agreements in place are free to set them up as long as they meet some minimum public participation requirements); OR
    2. the facility has a permit from the state which vaguely states that the facility can take out-of-state waste; OR
    3. the facility has entered into a binding contract before March 27, 2001 which commits them to taking out-of-state waste.

  2. States are granted the power to limit out-of-state waste in the following ways:

    1. If it doesn't conflict with existing permits or host community agreements, a state can limit the amount of out-of-state waste to 1993 dumping levels. Vaguely defined "affected local governments" without host community agreements may do the same. It it unclear whether the state or local governments have precedent when they conflict.

    2. If a state has a comprehensive municipal solid waste management plan (Pennsylvania never did), they can deny landfill or incinerator permits or permit renewals if they deem that there is no local or regional need for the landfill or incinerator in the State.

    3. States may pass laws which allow their environmental agencies to set a percentage cap on the amount of out-of-state waste which can be received at landfills or incinerators whose permits come up for renewal. This percentage may not be lower than 20%. Facilities accepting out-of-state waste subject to a host community agreement which was passed prior the the Greenwood bill becoming law would not be subject to this limitation.

    4. States with a comprehensive, statewide recycling program (Pennsylvania would NOT qualify), may limit the amount of out-of-state waste to 1995 levels, as long as the limit doesn't conflict with an existing state permit or host community agreement.

  3. States may impose a $2/ton waste fee to cover solid waste management program expenses incurred by the state or local government.

UNDERSTANDING CONGRESS 101:

(Well, actually it's the 107th Congress.) For those who want to be clear on the process of what is going on, here's a little explanation of how Congress works in relation to the interstate waste bill.

When a bill is introduced, the Speaker of the House refers the bill to a Committee. Congressman Greenwood has introduced his bill on interstate waste in every congressional session since 1994. Each time, the bill has been forwarded to the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Most bills die at the end of each 2 year session, having never made it out of committee, and need to be reintroduced when the new Congress comes in. The Chair of each committee has the power to decide which bills in their committee will be dealt with. Until this year, the Energy and Commerce Committee has been chaired by Tom Bliley of Virginia, who was not interested in seeing interstate waste legislation passed. Now that the Committee is chaired by Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, the legislation has a chance.

House Bill 1213 is specifically in the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, which is under the Committee on Energy and Commerce. On August 1st, 2001, this committee is holding a hearing where the waste industry and various public officials (but no representatives of environmental groups) will be presenting their views to the congressional committee.

Any time after the hearing, members of the subcommittee may introduce amendments and ultimately vote on the bill. If it is passed in the subcommittee, it then goes to the full committee for amendments and a vote. All three of the Pennsylvania congresspeople in the Committee (Greenwood, Doyle and Pitts) are also on the Subcommittee.

Should the bill be passed in the full Energy and Commerce Committee, it'll then go to the "floor" of the House, meaning that the entire House of Representatives (i.e., every congressperson in the country) will have a chance to offer amendments and vote on the bill.

The U.S. Senate would have to go through a similar process, and if an identical bill is passed there, then it'll go to President Bush for his approval or veto. If a bill is passed in the Senate that isn't identical to the House version, then it'll go to a "conference committee" to have the versions reconciled before going to the president.

Note: this is different than the process for state bills in Pennsylvania. With PA bills, if a different version is passed in one house, the version then goes to the other house for a revote.

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Last modified: 10 January 2002

http://www.actionpa.org/waste/fedwastebill.html