Bill Introduced As Vehicle
For City Incinerator Legislation

By CAROL KOCHEISEN, National League of Cities

Rep. Edward Madigan

At a press conference June 24, Rep. James Florio (D-NJ) announced the introduction of legislation, that he, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Rep. Edward Madigan (R-IL) and others were co-sponsoring, that would "set up strong environmental safeguards for municipal incinerators." "The legislation," Florio said, "has two important features: certainty and safety. Certainty for officials who are going to spend upwards of $200 million on a plant, and who want to know they're doing it right. Safety for people who worry that a plant might solve their garbage problem at the cost of their health."

While not at the press conference, Rep. Madigan indicated that he was co-sponsoring the legislation in response to and because he shared concerns expressed to him by the Illinois Municipal League. Action on this issue should occur in this Congress, he said, to accomplish the goals of setting reasonable standards for municipal incinerators and clarifying the regulatory status of ash residue for municipalities so they can move ahead.

Acknowledging that the legislation will need modifications, Florio said he intends to continue working with NLC to make those modifications and that it was his intent to bring everyone — cities, counties, vendors, and environmental groups into the process. A broad-based consensus is needed and he expressed his commitment to working to see that it comes about.

Speaking for Rep. Waxman, Florio expressed Waxman's commitment not to use the incinerator bill as a vehicle for moving other controversial Clean Air Act amendments.

NLC's Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Steering Committee has been involved in developing policy on incinerator legislation since last year and expressed their support for the proposal as the vehicle for seeking enactment of legislation on this issue at their recent meeting.

The municipal incinerator bill would amend the Clean Air Act by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to set national standards for ten pollutants emitted from incinerators. The standards would apply to new and existing facilities, with timetables for existing facilities to retrofit based on costs.

"Current EPA (emissions) standards are based on outmoded 1970s technology," Florio said. "EPA isn't expected to issue new standards until 1992. If you are a local official trying to solve a garbage problem, that's too long to wait."

The measure also amends the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and regulates disposal of municipal incinerator ash under the Subtitle D, solid waste, provisions of RCRA (rather than under the Subtitle C, hazardous waste provisions). While testing of incinerator ash to determine its toxicity will not be required, municipalities would be required to test the ash (and pass the test), if they wished to use alternative ash disposal options rather than putting it in an ash monofill.

EPA will be required to develop a new toxicity test for determining whether ash is hazardous and to develop new methods for treating ash that could then be recycled, reused or disposed of in a sanitary landfill.

A joint statement issued by NLC, the Governmental Refuse Collection and Disposal Association (representing 3,500 municipal solid waste management professionals) and the Environmental Defense Fund expressed the associations' support for the bi-partisan proposal "as the vehicle for enacting comprehensive legislation for municipal incinerators. This legislation provides the framework to help America's cities develop comprehensive, environmentally sound and effective strategies for the disposal of municipal solid waste." •

July 1988 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 13