Vindicator Editorial: Attorney general has reason to evaluate solid waste laws

The folllowing is an interesting Youngstown Vindicator "editorial" about our Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann:

Attorney general has reason to evaluate solid waste laws

Vindicator: Editorial 3-10-07

As the debate rages in various communities in the Mahoning Valley over the issue of landfills and the belief that the region has become a dumping ground for in-state and out-of-state trash and construction and demolition debris, there is now a state officeholder who has first-hand knowledge of what’s going on.

Attorney General Marc Dann of Liberty Township, a former state senator and school board member, along with state Rep. Sandra Stabile Harwood and other local legislators, has long expressed concern about Ohio’s solid waste laws and their impact on local communities.

Indeed, in September 2003, in the midst of a rally by citizens, representatives of environmental groups and state and local legislators in opposition to a planned landfill in Lordstown, Dann made the following statement: “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let
Trumbull County become a dumping ground for the eastern United States.”

Well, he now has the power, as the state’s chief lawyer, to review the legislation on the books and U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the flow of garbage and trash across state lines within the context of interstate commerce.

We realize that Dann, who took office in January, has a lot on his plate, but this is an issue that directly impacts the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the state. Options?

One of the questions the attorney general should seek to answer is this: Despite court opinions that laws designed to limit out-of-state garbage are unconstitutional, is there anything Ohio can do to stem the tide of East Coast garbage? It has long been suggested that the comparatively low tipping fees make this state attractive to waste haulers in New York and New Jersey. If that’s true, can fees be raised within the constraints of the federal court rulings?

Our interest in this issue was renewed recently with the front page story out of Poland Township headlined “Plan to increase landfill tonnage stirs concern.” It details plans by the BFI’s Carbon Limestone Sanitary Landfill on State Line Road to increase the amount of solid waste it takes in each day.

Some residents are objecting because the increase would result in more truck traffic and other
activity related to the landfill’s operation. The company is asking the Ohio EPA to permit an increase from 6,500 tons per day to 11,000 tons a day the amount of municipal solid waste allowed into the facility under its existing permit.

The request will be handled in Columbus, which is where Attorney General Dann can step in. As the state’s lawyer, he has the authority to review every legal document pertaining to state government. He should take this opportunity to conduct a review of the laws, rules and regulations on the books and determine whether they provide adequate protection to the residents of Ohio.

It should not take up a great deal of his time, seeing as how he already delved into the issue during his tenure as a state senator.