Date: January 18, 2011
Source: News Room
While touting their historic accomplishment in stemming the flow of Canadian waste into Michigan, Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Carl Levin (D-MI) lament that much still needs to be done. In 2006 the senators brokered a voluntary agreement with officials in Ontario to end municipal waste exports to Michigan. The agreement applied to residential volumes over which the municipalities had direct control. However, because private haulers also collect waste from commercial customers, not covered under the agreement, as much as 60% of the total waste stream continues to flow across the border.
The Supreme Court has ruled that only Congress, not states, can regulate interstate waste. But even if Congress passed a ban on Canadian waste, this would violate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This was the rationale for the original voluntary agreement, which Stabenow says has led to a reduction in waste imports of 1.5 million tons and 40,000 fewer trucks on the road. (Some of the reduction may also be due to the adverse economy). To address the commercial waste volumes they missed, Levin said he will seek "passage of legislation that would address the non-municipally managed Canadian trash shipments into Michigan. I also encourage state and local officials to consider their own steps to end these shipments."
One possible remedy would be to raise the state's environmental host fee which is currently only $0.21 per ton, the least expensive in the region. Wisconsin charges $11 per ton, and Illinois charges $2 per ton. Their primary target would be just three landfills that collectively receive 91% of all of the Canadian waste: Pine Tree Acres, owned by Waste Management (3.7 million yards or about 1.2 million tons), Carleton Farms, owned by Republic Services (2.5 million yards or .8 million tons), and Brent Run, owned by Waste Connections (2 million yards or .7 million tons). Total waste from Canada in 2009 was about 3 million tons, down from a high of about 4.5 million tons in 2006. Waste import figures are from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE).
PRESS RELEASE
Trash Agreement Stops 40,000 Trucks
Historic 2006 Trash Agreement with Canada Stops Ontario's City Waste from Being Dumped in Michigan
Michigan will no longer be a dumping ground for Ontario's city waste, thanks to the agreement negotiated four years ago by U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Carl Levin (D-MI). Ontario's Minister of Environment announced that Ontario has officially met the terms of their agreement, stopping shipments of city waste to Michigan as of Dec. 31, 2010. This agreement prevents more than 40,000 trash trucks hauling city waste from entering the state, stopping 1.5 million tons of city waste that otherwise would have been dumped in Michigan every year.
"This is a great victory for Michigan in the fight against Canadian trash," said Senator Stabenow. "This trash poses serious health, safety, and security threats to Michigan families and our communities. Since Toronto announced that it would begin sending its trash to our state in 2003, Senator Levin and I have made stopping these garbage imports a top priority. There is still more work to be done, but today's announcement is a major milestone in the fight to stop Canadian trash."
"This is an important achievement in an ongoing effort to limit and eventually eliminate all Canadian trash shipments into our state," Senator Levin said. "However, non-municipally managed trash that can come from private companies, from construction and industry, and from other sources, continues to come into Michigan. That is simply unacceptable. Along with Sen. Stabenow and others, I will work to gain passage of legislation that would address the non-municipally managed Canadian trash shipments into Michigan. I also encourage state and local officials to consider their own steps to end these shipments."
The Stabenow-Levin agreement, negotiated with Ontario's Minister of the Environment in 2006, called for the phase out and elimination of city waste shipments by the end of 2010. Senators Stabenow and Levin had been working with officials to meet the terms of the agreement. In addition to confirmation from Ontario's Minister of Environment, the Senators received letters from the four major Toronto-area municipalities confirming that their waste shipments to Michigan have stopped. Instead of shipping city waste to Michigan, these municipalities are utilizing new landfill capacity in Ontario and other waste management alternatives including diversion and waste-to-energy facilities.
For more information about the agreement, stabenow.senate.gov/?p=issue&id=71.
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