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The House removes most of the stringent requirements of the Senate’s landfill bill

Wade Rawlins, Staff Writer RALEIGH - North Carolina lawmakers are wrestling with how much the state should tighten permitting requirements for new landfills to prevent the state from turning into a dumping ground for out-of-state garbage.

The state House voted 83-31 Monday to pass landfill legislation that lacks most of the more stringent regulations the Senate endorsed and waste haulers oppose.

Omitted from the House version were stricter buffer requirements for landfills proposed in ecologically fragile areas, tougher financial guidelines for companies proposing to build them and a statewide trash tax to fund cleanup of old unlined landfills.

"They stripped a lot of stuff out of the bill," said Sen. Charlie Albertson, a Duplin County Democrat who oversaw the Senate version. "Is there anything left besides the title?"

Albertson said the Senate would reject the House changes. That sets the stage for the two chambers to appoint a panel of negotiators to try to work the differences between the bills in the waning days of the session.

For the past year, state lawmakers have been reviewing the state’s regulation of garbage disposal sites after putting a one-year hold on reviewing permits for new landfills.

They did so because of concerns that privately owned regional landfills proposed in rural eastern and Piedmont counties could transform the state into one of the nation’s top five importers of garbage and debris — a point that Albertson repeated.

"I don’t know of many people who think we ought to build these mega landfills in the state," said Albertson. "Our state is so fragile, particularly our coastal areas. We have to make sure we put things in place to prepare for the future to protect the environment we have."

Private solid-waste companies are attracted to North Carolina by inexpensive rural land, the absence of a surcharge on garbage that some other states levy, and the state’s central location on the East Coast. (more…)

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 4:43 am and is filed under Daily News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.