Landfill Bill will be a real choice between public interest and special interests
By Sen. Marc Dann (D) Liberty Twp.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
It's taken me a couple of days from tuesday's "interested party" (80% industry, 15% environmentalist, 5% Legislators) about the Counstruction and Demolition Waste Regulation bill (HB 397) to remain calm enough to write about it. Tribune-Chronicle Story here.
The bill is actually quite good and solves a serious problem.
Our lack of regulation of the construction and demolition waste industry has encouraged 7 million tons of east coast waste into Ohio each year [emphasis added]. This is the kind of economic development we can do with out. In Warren Township, Ohio, in my district we now have the U.S. EPA cleaning up one such site super fund style after the mishandling of waste caused a public health emergency verified by the center for disease control.
But now the leaders of our state want to exempt 7 politically connected waste operators who had applications pending before a recent moritorium was imposed on new dumps from the new, tougher regulations. It is a classic example of pay to play. Channel 5 in Cleveland detail previous pay to play success stories from this industry (here and here).
We cannot let this happen again. We are working on a strategy now to prevent this effort to put the special interests ahead of the public interest. More to come...
Thursday, December 01, 2005
It's taken me a couple of days from tuesday's "interested party" (80% industry, 15% environmentalist, 5% Legislators) about the Counstruction and Demolition Waste Regulation bill (HB 397) to remain calm enough to write about it. Tribune-Chronicle Story here.
The bill is actually quite good and solves a serious problem.
Our lack of regulation of the construction and demolition waste industry has encouraged 7 million tons of east coast waste into Ohio each year [emphasis added]. This is the kind of economic development we can do with out. In Warren Township, Ohio, in my district we now have the U.S. EPA cleaning up one such site super fund style after the mishandling of waste caused a public health emergency verified by the center for disease control.
But now the leaders of our state want to exempt 7 politically connected waste operators who had applications pending before a recent moritorium was imposed on new dumps from the new, tougher regulations. It is a classic example of pay to play. Channel 5 in Cleveland detail previous pay to play success stories from this industry (here and here).
We cannot let this happen again. We are working on a strategy now to prevent this effort to put the special interests ahead of the public interest. More to come...
Contact Senator Dann: mailto:mdann32@maild.sen.state.oh.us
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