THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505030008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Listen up. This is about garbage, trash and the like. Dull topic, perhaps, but since money to rid ourselves of solid waste comes out of your pocket, you ought to know why the cost has abruptly gone up.
Seven of the eight Hampton Roads localities that send their solid waste to the Southeastern Public Service Authority have agreed to pay sharply higher ``tipping'' fees to the agency to assure its fiscal soundness (Suffolk, which hosts the regional landfill, is exempt).
The additional cost will be borne by residents, businesses and others in the non-exempt seven localities that pay to have their garbage, trash, yard trimmings, scrapped appliances and hazardous wastes trucked to SPSA.
An unhappy turn of events, of course. But the pain seems certain to be temporary. The tipping fees are expected to return to more or less existing levels if, as is likely, Congress restores to localities and public-service districts power over all solid waste within their jurisdiction - power they wielded in good faith until the U.S. Supreme Court deprived them of it last year. The court agreed with private companies' complaint that localities and service districts lacked authority over solid-waste flow.
Localities must possess such control. As Virginia state policy recognizes, local control over solid-waste collection and disposal services furthers public health and safety, prevents blight and environmental degradation, promotes the generation of energy and recovery of useful resources from what we toss and limits noxious odors and other pollution. Local control, says state policy, is needed even if it limits competition from private enterprise because that control serves the public good.
But in its 6-3 ruling in the case of C. & A. Carbone vs. Town of Clarkstown, N.Y., the Supreme Court announced that localities had no control over solid waste because the federal government had not granted that power to localities.
Cities, counties and service districts - collectively burdened by $81 billion in bonded debt - were stunned by the Carbone decision. So were the holders of their bonds. All appealed to Congress for legislation to confer control upon localities.
The 103rd Congress, dominated by Democrats, was disposed to grant their petition. The House of Representatives unanimously approved remedial legislation. The issue came before the Senate on the last day of the session. Because the bill had not cleared the relevant committee, unanimous consent of the senators was needed to take up the matter. Ninety-nine senators consented; one, Sen. John Chaffee, R-R.I., did not.
The Republican-dominated 104th Congress is no less sympathetic than the preceding Congress to localities' concern. Senator Chaffee and Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., are co-sponsors of a bill to set things right.
Quick action is called for. Hampton Roads localities, running out of environmentally acceptable landfill space, joined hands in the 1970s to deal with the solid-waste challenge. The regional Southeastern Public Service Authority was their solution. SPSA agreed to develop a comprehensive solid-waste-handling system. The localities agreed to direct to SPSA no less than 95 percent of the solid waste generated by each - the arrangement would assure sufficient revenue for SPSA operations and debt service. With court approval of the agreement, SPSA turned to the bond market to finance millions of dollars in capital spending.
SPSA has done what it agreed to do, as have the eight South Hampton Roads localities. The agency now landfills only 45 percent of the solid waste it gets. Much of the rest is transformed into heat and electricity. Yard trimmings are composted and the resulting product is sold to the public. Tires are shredded. Scrap metal is sold off.
The Supreme Court Carbone ruling weakened the financial underpinning of public solid-waste-disposal programs, such as SPSA's, by freeing entrepreneurs to skim off profitable business. That explains SPSA's momentarily dimmed financial outlook and the bigger bills for its customers. In addition to spending on operations, SPSA must come up with $21 million a year to service its current debt of $270 million.
The Carbone decision, however well-based in law, threatens the public interest. But Congress should banish the threat. Expeditiously, we trust. ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
by CNB