BFI Offers 400 Acres Of Land To Santa Clarita In Contract Bid
Browning-Ferris Industries, Inc. has included the donation of approximately 400 acres of Elsmere Canyon property to the city of Santa Clarita, Calif. in its response to the city's RFP for its Integrated Waste Management Services contract. This land donation is in addition to the 400 acres being donated to the County of Los Angeles that was announced earlier this week. The donation is contingent on the City of Santa Clarita awarding the contract to BFI. Included in BFI's proposal is an approximate 22% decrease in the cost for trash disposal to the residents of Santa Clarita. The BFI proposal also offers unlimited residential and commercial recycling...Read More »
U.S. Liquids Delays Release Of 10-Q, Prepares To Restate Earnings
U S Liquids Inc. (Amex: USL), a provider of liquid waste management services, announced that its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2003 will not be filed until the company has completed its internal investigation of accounting issues at one of its business units. On April 29, the company announced that, due to improper recording of job costs and certain other items at one of its business units, the company intends to restate its results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2000, 2001, and 2002. Company officials said that it appears that the operating income of the business unit was overstated in the aggregate amount of $2.1 million over a three-year period from 2000 through 2002...Read More »
S&P Reduces Outlook On Clean Harbors To Negative
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has revised its outlook on Clean Harbors Inc. (NasdaqNM: CLHB) to negative from positive, following the company's announcement of weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings, revised earnings guidance, and reduced liquidity position. The company has faced challenges in integrating the Chemical Services Division of Safety-Kleen Corp. in late 2002. S&P also affirmed its current ratings, including the 'BB-' corporate credit rating on the company. The company's total debt outstanding is about $175 million...Read More »
Newport News Begins Rollout Of Larger Carts
Newport News, Virginia has rolled out new recycling carts this month in the hopes of encouraging residents to recycle more trash. Sixty-four-gallon blue carts on wheels now replace 18-gallon brown bins in most of the city's 44,000 households. The switch will continue through June. Pickup schedules also will change; trucks will collect recyclables every other week instead of weekly. Condominiums and similar multifamily establishments will keep the 18-gallon bins, as they do not have enough space for the larger carts...Read More »
Georgia Commissioners Risk Prison Over Landfill Denial
Taliaferro County, Georgia commissioners have said they will fight the plans of Complex Environmental Inc. of Atlanta to site a 1,030-acre landfill in Crawfordsville. Some local officials have said they do not want the rural county turned into a dumping ground, but others have countered that the financial benefits would far outweigh any problems the landfill might bring. The developer has brought the commission into court, challenging their denial of a zoning assurance letter, and a Superior Court judge agreed. If the commissioners do not sign the letter by this Friday, when they are scheduled to appear in court, they could be found in contempt. Complex Environmental would pay Taliaferro County $1 per ton for all waste coming into the landfill...Read More »
New York Landfill Fight Heads To Court
The fight to reopen and enlarge an Albion, New York landfill located near the Erie Canal will now head to court. The Albion Town Board has voted unanimously to deny Waste Management of New York Inc. the permits it would need to open the 72-acre Towpath Environmental and Recycling Center on an existing landfill site. If approved, the new landfill would have been an expansion of the Orleans Sanitary Landfill, which closed in the early 1990s when its owner was charged with accepting too much waste and falsifying business records. Waste Management later contracted with the owner's bankruptcy trustees to cap the existing landfill and take over operations of the site...Read More »
Wichita's Airline Subsidy With Recycling Funds Found Legal
The City of Wichita did nothing wrong when it used money from its landfill cleanup fund to subsidize a discount air carrier, according to Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline. When the Wichita City Council adopted its budget for 2002, it voted to take $4.5 million out of the landfill trust fund to subsidize AirTran Airways. The state Legislature prohibits counties from spending trash disposal fees on other programs. But that law applies only to counties and not to cities, according to Kline. The city still has enough money in its trust fund to care for Brooks Landfill for the next 30 years and to clean up known pollution, as required by state law...Read More »
EI: EPA's Hazardous Waste Estimates Inaccurate
EPA's estimates of the hazardous waste volume generated annually in the United States appear to be dramatically undercounting the actual hazardous waste universe, according to a recent report. Submitted generator reports indicate that at least 470 million tons are generated annually, while reports submitted separately by commercial hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal (TSD) facilities confirm the acceptance of about 7.5 million tons, the report said. "The biggest gap in the data appears to be with generator reporting," notes the report. "Large-quantity-generator reports are missing or under-reported for about 34% of the shipments reported by the commercial hazardous waste facilities. If this same reporting gap holds true for the overall universe of large-quantity generators, the generation of hazardous waste and wastewater may be hundreds of million of tons higher than is being reported."...Read More »
EPA Issues Grants For Innovation Pilot Projects
EPA announced that it has recently issued a total of $352,000 in grants for 10 new projects under its OSWER Innovation Initiative. Under the program, EPA is assisting communities and companies in the demonstration of creative ways to minimize and recycle wastes, improve energy efficiency, and restore land to beneficial use. EPA issued $525,000 in grants for the first round of Innovation Initiative pilot projects in July 2002...Read More »
Sign up to receive our free Weekly News Bulletin