Senate Bill No. 563
(By Senator Wiedebusch)
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[Introduced March 22, 1993; referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article nine, chapter
twenty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to further amend said
article by adding thereto a new section, designated section
seven-a, relating to sewage sludge.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article nine, chapter twenty of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said article be
further amended by adding thereto a new section, designated
section seven-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9. COUNTY AND REGIONAL SOLID WASTE AUTHORITIES.
§20-9-1. Legislative findings and purposes.
The Legislature finds that the improper and uncontrolled
collection, transportation, processing and disposal of domestic
and commercial garbage, refuse and other solid wastes in the
state of West Virginia results in: (1) A public nuisance and aclear and present danger to the citizens of West Virginia; (2)
the degradation of the state's environmental quality including
both surface and groundwaters which provide essential and
irreplaceable sources of domestic and industrial water supplies;
(3) provides harborages and breeding places for disease-carrying,
injurious insects, rodents and other pests injurious to the
public health, safety and welfare; (4) decreases public and
private property values and results in the blight and
deterioration of the natural beauty of the state; (5) has adverse
social and economic effects on the state and its citizens; and
(6) results in the waste and squandering of valuable nonrenewable
resources contained in such solid wastes which can be recovered
through proper recycling and resource-recovery techniques with
great social and economic benefits for the state.
The Legislature further finds that the proper collection,
transportation, processing, recycling and disposal of solid waste
is for the general welfare of the citizens of the state and that
the lack of proper and effective solid waste collection services
and disposal facilities demands that the state of West Virginia
and its political subdivisions act promptly to secure such
services and facilities in both the public and private sectors.
The Legislature further finds that sewage sludge, as that
term is defined in section two of this article, may, unless
properly treated and disposed of, cause serious injury to the
population and environment of the state of West Virginia and the
public health, safety and welfare of the population andenvironment of West Virginia require that federally regulated
safety mandates concerning sewage sludge be adopted; the
Legislature further finds that a significant economic benefit to
the state of West Virginia will accrue if treatment facilities
were required to prepare sewage sludge for sale.
The Legislature further finds that other states of these
United States of America have imposed stringent standards for the
proper collection and disposal of solid waste and that the
relative lack of such standards and enforcement for such
activities in West Virginia has resulted in the importation and
disposal into the state of increasingly large amounts of
infectious, dangerous and undesirable solid waste and hazardous
waste from other states by persons and firms who wish to avoid
the costs and requirements for proper, effective and safe
disposal of such wastes in the states of origin.
The Legislature further finds that the process of developing
rational and sound solid waste plans at the county or regional
level is impeded by the proliferation of siting proposals for new
solid waste facilities.
Therefore, it is the purpose of the Legislature to protect
the public health and welfare by providing for a comprehensive
program of solid waste collection, processing, recycling and
disposal to be implemented by state and local government in
cooperation with the private sector. The Legislature intends to
accomplish this goal by establishing county and regional solid
waste authorities throughout the state to develop and implementlitter and solid waste control plans. It is the further purpose
of the Legislature to restrict and regulate persons and firms
from exploiting and endangering the public health and welfare of
the state by disposing of solid wastes and other dangerous
materials which would not be accepted for disposal in the
location where such wastes or materials were generated.
It is further the purpose of the Legislature to reduce our
solid waste management problems and to meet the purposes of this
article by requiring county and regional solid waste authorities
to establish programs and plans based on an integrated waste
management hierarchy. In order of preference, the hierarchy is
as follows:
(1)
Source reduction. -- This involves minimizing waste
production and generation through product design, reduction of
toxic constituents of solid waste, and similar activities.
(2)
Recycling, reuse and materials recovery. -- This
involves separating and recovering valuable materials from the
waste stream, composting food and yard waste, and marketing of
recyclables.
(3)
Landfilling. -- To the maximum extent possible, this
option should be reserved for nonrecyclables and other materials
that cannot practically be managed in any other way. This is the
lowest priority in the hierarchy and involves the waste
management option of last resort.
The Legislature further finds that the potential impacts of
proposed commercial solid waste facilities may have a deleteriousand debilitating impact upon the transportation network, property
values, economic growth, environmental quality, other land uses
and the public health and welfare in affected communities. The
Legislature also finds that the siting of such facilities is not
being adequately addressed to protect these compelling interests
of counties and local communities.
The Legislature further finds that affected citizens and
local governments often look to state environmental regulatory
agencies to resolve local land use conflicts engendered by these
proposed facilities. The Legislature also finds that such local
land use conflicts are most effectively resolved in a local
governmental forum where citizens can most easily participate in
the decision-making process and the land use values of local
communities most effectively identified and incorporated into a
comprehensive policy which reflects the values and goals of those
communities.
Therefore, it is the purpose of the Legislature to enable
local citizens to resolve the land-use conflicts which may be
created by proposed commercial solid waste facilities through the
existing forum of county or regional solid waste authorities.
§20-9-7a. Compliance with federal safety regulations;
reconstituting, composting and selling sludge.
Each county and solid waste authority shall be required to
develop and submit a plan to the solid waste management board to
ensure that any person or solid waste facility which is in any
way engaged in any process which produces sludge is in compliancewith the requirements of 40 CFR part 258 concerning the quality
of materials disposed.
Each county and solid waste authority shall require that all
sewage sludge be tested at the solid waste facility to ensure
that the requirements of 40 CFR part 258 are met, and further
each county and solid waste authority shall require that all, or
as much as practicable, sewage sludge be reconstituted and
composted in an economically viable form and packaged for sale in
intrastate, interstate and foreign commerce.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require compliance
with federal safety standards for sludge disposed of in West
Virginia and to require reconstituting, composting and packing
sludge for sale in interstate, intrastate and foreign commerce.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.
§20-9-7-a is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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