ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 313
(By Senators Wooton and Love)
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[Introduced February 9, 1995; referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections ten and twelve, article
sixteen, chapter twenty-two of the code of West Virginia,
one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating
to environmental resources; solid waste landfill closure
assistance program; providing when a permittee that is a
municipality, county, county solid waste authority or
regional solid waste authority is ineligible for closure
assistance funds; increasing the limit on the percentage of
the closure assistance fund that may be used for
administrative purposes from one percent to two percent;
providing for closure extension; and providing for reporting
requirements.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections ten and twelve, article sixteen, chapter
twenty-two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read
as follows:
ARTICLE 16. SOLID WASTE LANDFILL CLOSURE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.
§22-16-10. Limitation on assistance.
The director may provide closure assistance only to
permittees who meet the following requirements:
(1) The permittee of a landfill that does not have a liner
and ceases accepting solid waste on or before the thirtieth day
of November, one thousand nine hundred ninety-one, except for
those landfills allowed to accept solid waste pursuant to the
provisions of section seventeen, article fifteen of this chapter
and ceases accepting solid waste on or before the extension
deadline as determined by the director; or the permittee of a
landfill that has only a single liner and ceases accepting solid
waste on or before the thirtieth day of September, one thousand
nine hundred ninety-three;
(2) The permittee of the landfill must demonstrate to the
satisfaction of the director that it does not have the financial
resources on hand or the ability to generate the amounts needed
to comply, in a timely manner, with the closure requirements provided in article fifteen of this chapter and any rules
promulgated pursuant thereto: Provided, That any permittee
required to close a landfill, or any portion thereof, due to the
lack of an approved composite liner system, who collects solid
waste within this state which is disposed outside this state,
shall not be eligible for closure assistance: Provided, however,
That any permittee which is a Class I municipality shall be
eligible for closure assistance when the permittee elects to and
pays the solid waste assessment fee which would otherwise be
levied and imposed upon the disposal of the solid waste by
subsection (a), section four of this article, if the solid waste
was disposed of within the state; and
(3) The permittee must maintain a permit for the landfill
pursuant to the provisions of section ten, article fifteen of
this chapter and maintain the full amount of the bond required to
be submitted pursuant to section twelve of said article.
§22-16-12. Solid waste facility closure cost assistance fund;
closure extension; reporting requirements.
(a) The "closure cost assistance fund" is continued as a
special revenue account in the state treasury. The fund shall
operate as a special fund whereby all deposits and payments
thereto do not expire to the general revenue fund, but shall remain in such account and be available for expenditure in the
succeeding fiscal year. Separate subaccounts may be established
within the special account for the purpose of identification of
various revenue resources and payment of specific obligations.
(b) Interest earned on any money in the fund shall be
deposited to the credit of the fund.
(c) The fund consists of the following:
(1) Moneys collected and deposited in the state treasury
which are specifically designated by acts of the Legislature for
inclusion in the fund, including moneys collected and deposited
into the fund pursuant to section four of this article;
(2) Contributions, grants and gifts from any source, both
public and private, which may be used by the director for any
project or projects;
(3) Amounts repaid by permittees pursuant to section
eighteen, article fifteen of this chapter; and
(4) All interest earned on investments made by the state
from moneys deposited in this fund.
(d) The solid waste management board, upon written approval
of the director, has the authority to pledge all or such part of
the revenues paid into the closure cost assistance fund as may be
needed to meet the requirements of any revenue bond issue or issues of the solid waste management board authorized by this
article, including the payment of principal of, interest and
redemption premium, if any, on such revenue bonds and the
establishing and maintaining of a reserve fund or funds for the
payment of the principal of, interest and redemption premium, if
any, on such revenue bond issue or issues when other moneys
pledged may be insufficient therefor. Any pledge of moneys in
the closure cost assistance fund for revenue bonds shall be a
prior and superior charge on such fund over the use of any of the
moneys in such fund to pay for the cost of any project on a cash
basis. Expenditures from the fund, other than for the retirement
of revenue bonds, may only be made in accordance with the
provisions of this article.
(e) The amounts deposited in the fund may be expended only
on the cost of projects as provided for in sections three and
fifteen of this article, as provided in subsection (f) of this
section and for payment of bonds and notes issued pursuant to
section five of this article: Provided, That no more than two
percent of the annual deposits to such fund may be used for
administrative purposes.
(f) Notwithstanding any provision of this article, upon
request of the solid waste management board, and with the approval of the projects by the director of the division of
environmental protection, the director may pledge and place into
escrow accounts up to an aggregate of two million dollars of the
fund to satisfy two years debt service requirement that
permittees of publicly-owned landfills and transfer stations are
required to meet in order to obtain loans. Pledges shall be made
on a project-by-project basis, may not exceed five hundred
thousand dollars for a project and shall be made available after
loan commitments are received. The director may pledge funds for
a loan only when the following conditions are met:
(1) The proceeds of the loan are used only to perform
construction of a transfer station or a composite liner system
that is required to meet the provisions of title forty-seven,
series thirty-eight, solid waste management rules;
(2) The permittee dedicates all yearly debt service revenue,
as determined by the public service commission, to meet the
repayment schedule of the loan, before it uses available revenue
for any other purpose; and
(3) That any funds pledged may only be paid to the lender if
the permittee is in default on the loan.
(g) Any landfills which where ordered to close by the
thirty-first day of December, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, are hereby granted a closure extension until the first day
of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six: Provided, That
no landfill which closed on or before the thirtieth day of
September, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, shall be
eligible for such an extension.
(h) The department of environmental protection is required
to file, by the first day of January of each ensuing year, an
annual report with the joint committee on government and finance
providing details on the manner in which the landfill closure
assistance funds were expended for the prior fiscal year.