Horry County, SC Weighs Flow Control Measure

Date: January 19, 2009

Source: News Room

Horry County, SC is the newest of a handful of municipalities said to be considering a flow control ordinance law aimed at retaining an estimated $3.5 million in waste revenues lost to private haulers who hauled waste out of county rather than to Horry County's own landfill. The fees are needed to help pay for recycling programs that are struggling in the wake of falling commodity prices. Opponents of the measure argue that it would create a government sponsored monopoly of the local waste business with no public benefit. The door to flow control was reopened by the Supreme Court in April, 2007 when it ruled on United Haulers Association v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority in upstate New York. There, the Court made the distinction between its earlier 1994 Carbone ruling by allowing municipalities that own their waste operations to dictate the destiny of waste generated within their jurisdictions. In that case, the Court decided that any burden on local commerce was outweighed by public benefit and that through their elected representatives, citizens had could remedy that burden.

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