JUDGE: VA. CITY CAN SHIP TRASH TO N.C.

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993                   TAG: 9302070046
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HIGH POINT, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short
JUDGE: VA. CITY CAN SHIP TRASH TO N.C.
A federal judge has cleared the way for a Virginia city to begin shipping garbage to a dump across the North Carolina line.
The Danville City Council agreed unanimously Thursday to begin shipping sometime this summer 300 tons of garbage a day to Piedmont Landfill, near Kernersville, N.C.
Piedmont Landfill is owned by Waste Management of the Carolinas Inc., which sued North Carolina last year to prevent the enforcement of a state law that would have required Virginia officials to certify that each load of garbage had been inspected for hazardous materials before it left Virginia.
The law would have applied to other states as well. The General Assembly enacted it in 1987 to prevent a barge filled with rotting New York City garbage from depositing its load in North Carolina.
Judge Franklin Dupree ruled Wednesday, however, that the law is a barrier to interstate commerce.
His order does not, however, interfere with North Carolina's right to inspect the garbage before it is unloaded at the landfill.
Dupree's ruling also allows Waste Management to accept garbage from Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and South Carolina.
Bill Lewis, manager of Piedmont Landfill, said Waste Management is negotiating with local governments in those states.
Tom Moffitt, deputy state attorney general who represented North Carolina in the lawsuit, said the law is "crystal clear and dead against us." The federal courts are saying that dealing with waste "is not a local problem; it's a national problem."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB