Ohio C&DD dumping fees may go up 10 cents / 8-10-07

Debris-dumping fees may go up 10 cents
August 15, 2007
By Spencer Hunt

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Companies that cart millions of tons of debris into Ohio from demolition sites might soon pay more to dump it.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency wants to collect a dime for every ton of waste dumped in the state's 61 debris landfills. About half of the nearly 6 million tons last year came from outside the state.

The proposed fee is the latest step in a state crackdown on debris landfills, whose owners aren't required to install plastic liners or take other steps to protect against contaminated groundwater.

The new fee -- raising an estimated $600,000 a year -- would help officials test for pollution that might leak from the dumps and threaten streams and drinking-water supplies.

Industry officials say no groundwater pollution has been linked to these landfills. But EPA officials and environmental advocates say there hasn't been enough work done to see whether problems exist.

"We don't have as clear a picture on these things that we'd like to have," said Andrew Booker, a supervisor in the EPA's Solid Waste Division.

Debris landfills went unregulated by the state for decades because they weren't considered environmental threats.

However, problems arose after several landfills started taking millions of tons of debris from waste haulers as far away as New Jersey and New York.

One site, Warren Recycling in Trumbull County, became notorious for underground fires and clouds of noxious hydrogen sulfide gas. The landfill closed in 2004.

The proposed fee would be added to a 60-cent-per-ton fee that state lawmakers imposed in 2005 to help city and county health departments inspect debris landfills.

Such landfills also collect a $1-per-ton state fee to help fund recycling and conservation programs run by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Booker said the new fee would help the state and local health agencies drill groundwater monitoring wells where problems are suspected.

The EPA could start collecting the new fee by November, pending public comment and hearings.

Michael Cyphert, general counsel for the Construction and Demolition Association of Ohio, said his group is unlikely to oppose the fee. The costs will be passed to waste haulers and demolition companies.

"It's going to have an impact for large cities that have a lot of urban renewal projects," Cyphert said. "It's going to cost a little more to knock down those old homes and dispose of them."

The fee shouldn't hurt Scott Wrecking Co., which runs a debris landfill at 1377 Harmon Rd. on the South Side, said Greg McComas, the company's environmental consultant.

"When it's across-the-board and everyone is doing it, it doesn't create an unfair competitive situation," he said.

shunt@dispatch.com