Garbage Haulers' Strike Continues In Chicago
Striking garbage workers in Chicago have overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer from the Chicago Area Refuse Haulers Association. About 3,300 Teamsters who handle waste from the city's suburbs and high-rises have been on strike since last Wednesday. As a result, activity at area landfills has dropped dramatically. The haulers' association represents 16 of the largest private haulers in the Chicago area. But the leaders of Teamsters Locals 731 and 301 recommended their members vote against the association's proposed five-year contract, saying the two sides were still more than 50 cents per hour apart in each year. Association officials said that over the five-year contract, compensation would have risen 24 percent, including benefits...Read More »
New Hampshire Sues 22 Oil Companies Over MTBE
The state of New Hampshire has filed a lawsuit against 22 oil companies, charging that widespread water pollution exists in the state as a result of the gasoline-additive MTBE. The lawsuit asks that the oil companies, which include Exxon Mobil Corp. and ChevronTexaco Corp., pay for the cleanup of the state's water supplies contaminated by the fuel additive. "MTBE has become a significant and costly threat, especially to the underground aquifers that most of us rely upon for drinking water," New Hampshire Attorney General Peter Heed said in a statement. MTBE is used in roughly a third of the nation's gasoline to cut smog emissions, but it has drawn serious criticism in recent years because of its potential to pollute groundwater. California, New York, and Connecticut, among other states, have mandated bans on MTBE...Read More »
Kenai Peninsula In Alaska Expands Landfill
The expansion of the Central Peninsula Landfill in Alaska's Kenai Borough Peninsula is now underway, as forty acres of land have been cleared and 630,000 cubic yards of land are being excavated. Borough voters last year approved the sale of up to $12 million in bonds to pay for all expenses related to building two landfill cells over the next decade. CIC Inc. of Soldotna is handling the clearing and excavating work at the landfill, and the company hopes to have the majority of the work done before winter sets in. The liner and leachate systems will be installed in the spring of 2004. The Kenai Peninsula Borough Authority recently named the landfill project its top state funding priority in an effort to improve its chances of receiving the $2.24 million it has requested from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation's matching grant program...Read More »
California County Settles Landfill Dispute For $1.9M
Just moments before a jury was to deliver its verdict, a family suing Stanislaus County, California over contaminated well water agreed to accept a $1.9 million settlement and move off the property. If they had waited until the verdict was announced, the family would have received $520,000 and kept their 100-acre farm, which borders the closed Geer Road landfill. The county discovered chemicals such as PCE, TCE, and DCE in the family's water in 2001, and began supplying the family with water. The landfill was built in 1970, and has no liner beneath it...Read More »
New Mexico Court Upholds Landfill Siting Decision
The New Mexico Court of Appeals has upheld the state Environment Department's decision to allow a landfill near Santa Fe. The Colonias Development Council had appealed the department's decision to issue a permit to Rhino Environmental Services, claiming the department did not consider the "social impact" of the landfill. But the court found that the department properly considered appropriate regulatory requirements and rejected other claims made by the council. The opinion notes that the state's Solid Waste Act, the governing act for landfill decisions, never actually uses the phrase "social impact," and only indicates a goal of protecting public health, safety, and welfare...Read More »
Rubber Association Promotes Use of Scrap Tires
In an effort to promote the reuse of scrap tires, tire manufacturers have initiated an effort to help increase markets for coarse rubber. The Rubber Manufacturers Association has created a scrap tire industry ad hoc committee on coarse rubber, continuing a program launched at the 2002 Rubber Recycling Conference, which was sponsored by RMA and the Rubber Association of Canada. The RMA estimates 80 million pounds, or about 6.5 million old tires, were put to new uses in 2001. The new industry committee will seek to dispel longstanding myths about tire recycling, increase markets, and establish voluntary recycling guidelines...Read More »
RRT Installs CRT Recycling System For Computer Recyclers
RRT Design & Construction has completed the installation of its new CRT recycling system for Computer Recyclers of America in Vista, California. RRT's system processes entire CRT, VDT and TV tubes into separate glass and metal products. Computer Recyclers of America is currently the only facility in Southern California to de-manufacture and recycle CRT tubes. CRA is only the second company in California to be approved by the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Toxic Substance Control as an authorized outlet to recycle and crush CRT glass...Read More »
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