Preservation in the News

Legislation would tighten rules, deal with computers

By: Wade Rawlins 

State lawmakers Thursday gave final approval to environmental legislation that would provide more stringent regulation of new landfills and require computer manufacturers to recycle computers they sell in the state.

The bill, which Gov. Mike Easley has supported, would add a $2-per-ton statewide disposal tax to pay for cleanup of old landfills, increase setback requirements to protect streams and require computer manufacturers to develop plans to keep electronics from ending up in landfills.

The overhaul of solid waste laws was spurred by concerns that large regional landfills proposed by private companies in Eastern North Carolina could turn the state into one of the nation's top five importers of garbage. The landfill operators proposed to haul in trash by truck, rail and barge from sites up and down the East Coast.

"Today, we passed one of the most important environmental bills in the past two decades," said Christa Wagner, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club. "The state took a look at the future and passed a very comprehensive piece of legislation. North Carolina is now prepared to deal with 21st-century generation of waste."

The average household in North Carolina generates about a ton of waste each year. But electronics have become a larger and larger part of the waste stream.

The bill requires computer manufacturers that sell more than 1,000 pieces of equipment a year in the state to develop a plan to reuse, take back or recyle discarded computer equipment.

The legislation increases the distance that new landfills must be set back from streams to 200 feet, from the current 50 feet. It also would prevent construction of a landfill with five miles of a national wildlife refuge, two miles of a state park or one mile of state gameland -- distances opponents called arbitrary.

That appears to block pending proposals for large landfills in Camden, Hyde and Columbus counties.

"What the bill was really about was to stop three landfills that were trying to get permitted," said David Barnes, a lobbyist for the Carolinas' chapter of the National Solid Wastes Management Association, which represents privately owned landfills. "The bill will stop the landfills."

A companion bill -- approved as part of a deal to win support for the original legislation -- offered some relief to solid waste companies that had applied to build new landfills. It allows the companies to seek reimbursement for their costs. The payments would come from the disposal tax.

The existing 40 solid waste landfills, operated by counties, cities and private industry, will be allowed to continue operating and to expand, bill supporters said.