01/03/1995 - Laserfiche WebLink

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TO: Board of County Commissioners r FROM: Charles P. Vunac, County Attorney _ DATE:__ December 27, 1994 _ RE: Solid Waste Flow Control At the Board's direction at the suggestion of Commissioner Macht I attended a NACo special meeting concerning the ability of local governments to control disposal of solid waste in their own jurisdictions. The concern of the counties nation-wide came from a U.S. Supreme Court decision (the Carbone case) which ruled that certain governmental restrictions on disposal sites were in restraint of interstate commerce and were therefore unconstitutional. In response to the Supreme Court case, NACo prepared and presented to Congress legislation which would have remedied the counties' concerns; however, the waste management industry worked against the bill and with the support of Senator Chaffe managed to kill the bill for that session. The bill was defeated in part because it became connected with the separate issue of interstate disposal of hazardous wastes. Since the adjournment of the last Congress, NACo has been working with congressional staff and representatives from the waste industry and has developed corrections to last year's bill which everyone believes will make the bill supportable by all concerned in the next Congress. NACo's special meeting was by invitation only and was attended by 50 representatives from throughout the country. There were 8 from Florida, which was the state with the highest percentage of representation. For almost 7 hours the committee met without breaking and discussed the items as shown on the attached agenda. The predominant concern of the counties was their ability to re -pay bonds issued to finance state-of-the-art waste disposal facilities which would be more expensive than alternate industry dump _sites. The proposed bill contains authorization for counties which have met certain guidelines to continue to impose flow control restrictions. Indian River County meets the guidelines for continued flow control authority in the proposed bill in that we had in existence before May 15, 1994, an ordinance which required disposal of our County waste in an existing County facility. In addition the County has issued bonds in reliance on the stream of waste coming to our facility. Our County is, therefore, in as good a position as any county in the United States on this issue; however, it is still necessary that the proposed bill be passed by Congress before our County can be assured of a continuing stream of solid waste to our facility. The chairman of the committee suggested that representatives meet again in the spring when the bill is before Congress to coordinate our efforts in getting the bill passed. In addition the NACo representatives asked each member to request financial assistance from NACo member counties to be used to cover expenses to get the bill passed. NACo has not been budgeted sufficient funds to support this bill, and the chairman indicated that up to an additional $60,000 is needed. Requested Action: As a result of Indian River County's creation of the Solid Waste Disposal District in 1987, if the proposed congressional legislation is passed, Indian River County will have to take no additional action to protect itself; however, if the Board wishes to contribute to the NACo Solid Waste Association lobbying fund, the Board would need to give proper direction to the staff. - JANUARY 3, 1995 34 �,. BOOK � FALL, c� M