Solid Waste Issues in the 106th Congress

Order Code IB10002

CRS Issue Brief for Congress

Received through the CRS Web

Solid Waste Issues in the 106th Congress

Updated April 27, 2000

James E. McCarthy

Resources, Science, and Industry Division

Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

CONTENTS

SUMMARY

MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS

Trends in Municipal Solid Waste Management

The Federal Role in MSW Management

Interstate Shipment of Waste

Legislative Issues

Should Congress Grant States the Authority to Limit Out-of-State Waste?

Should States and Localities Be Allowed to Control the Flow of Privately Collected

Waste?

Should Remediation Waste Be Exempt from Hazardous Waste Regulation?

Should the United States Implement the Basel Convention on International Movement

of Waste?

LEGISLATION

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS, REPORTS, AND DOCUMENTS

FOR ADDITIONAL READING

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Solid Waste Issues in the 106th Congress

SUMMARY

The prospects for solid waste legislation

in the 106th Congress appear to be dimming.

Little action was taken on waste issues in the

first session, and consensus regarding the need

for legislation appears to be lacking.

The 106th Congress inherited three solid

waste issues from the 105th and earlier

Congresses: interstate shipment of waste, the

management of what are called “remediation

wastes” from old hazardous waste sites, and

implementation of the Basel Convention on

Transboundary Movement of Waste. The

105th Congress adjourned without passing bills

on these issues, although each was the subject

of discussion.

The first set of issues, whether state and

local governments should be given authority to

restrict the growing volume of out-of-state

solid waste (the “interstate waste” issue) has

been on the congressional agenda since the late

1980s. A related issue, whether state or local

jurisdictions may designate where locally

generated waste must be disposed (“flow

control”) has more recently joined it. The

Constitution’s interstate commerce clause

generally prohibits both actions absent

congressional authorization. Since the 101st

Congress, both the House and Senate have

passed legislation providing some such

authority, but lack of agreement on specific

provisions has prevented enactment.

Continued growth in interstate waste

shipments, the financial troubles faced by local

governments in the absence of flow control,

and the impending closure of New York City’s

Fresh Kills landfill (for many years, the world’s

largest) have combined to spur congressional

interest.

Congressional Research Service

A second solid waste issue that has been

the subject of discussion is a proposal to

exempt from hazardous waste management

requirements certain low-risk wastes generated

by remediation of old waste sites. Doing so

would reduce the cost and increase the speed

of site cleanups, without necessarily

endangering the environment. There has been

general support for such legislation from

industry, environmental groups, states, the

Administration, and several key Senators, but

reaching agreement on the specifics of draft

legislation has proven difficult.

In the

meantime, EPA has taken steps to lessen some

of the most onerous regulatory requirements,

reducing the need for legislation.

A third issue that was considered a

possible subject of legislation in the 106th

Congress was implementation of the Basel

Convention on Transboundary Movement of

Waste. More than 130 countries have ratified

this convention, which is intended to protect

countries from receiving unwanted shipments

of waste. The United States played a major

role in the negotiation of the convention a

decade ago, but has not passed legislation to

implement it. Both the Administration and the

committees of jurisdiction expressed interest in

moving such legislation in the 106th Congress,

but no legislation has been introduced.

˜ The Library of Congress

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MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

As of late April, seven bills had been submitted to allow states and local governments

authority to restrict interstate shipments of municipal solid waste. The Senate Environment

and Public Works Committee held a hearing on the subject June 17, 1999, but no further

action has been taken.

BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS

Trends in Municipal Solid Waste Management

Solid waste management was a major public concern over much of the last decade, as

local governments and private firms throughout the nation upgraded waste management

programs and facilities and dealt with myriad public pressures over waste issues.

Since the mid-1980s, the nation has experienced revolutionary changes in how it

manages municipal solid waste. Almost three-quarters of the nation’s municipal landfills have

closed (Figure 1), as regulations governing land disposal have tightened. Many land disposal

facilities have been replaced by waste-to-energy plants (Figure 2), which increased their

capacity to manage waste tenfold during the 1980s and early '90s, and now manage 17% of

the nation’s municipal solid waste (MSW). But the growth of waste-to-energy has now itself

stalled due to increased costs and environmental concerns. In the last 10 years, recycling and

composting have been the fastest growing methods of waste management, accounting for

28% of waste management in 1997, up from 10% in 1986. More than 9,300 local

governments have begun curbside collection of recyclable materials (Figure 3), and 3,800

have composting programs for yard waste.

Implementation of these changes resulted in a substantial increase in the cost of waste

management during the 1980s. More recently, however, in most areas of the country, the

cost of waste disposal has declined. The main reason for this has been the construction of

huge regional landfills that enjoy economies of scale and contribute to a glut of disposal

capacity in many areas. At the same time, a series of court cases has dismantled restrictions

on interstate commerce in waste, increasing competition among service providers and

lowering prices.

In most areas of the country, the lead role in transforming solid waste management has

been played by state and local governments and the private sector. State and local

governments generally decide how waste will be managed — whether by landfill, incineration,

recycling, composting, waste reduction, or a combination thereof. States set standards for

the resulting facilities, and funding for MSW programs comes overwhelmingly from state and

local sources.

Private waste management firms have also been active players, often under contract or

franchise agreements with local governments, or in response to state mandates. Private firms

manage most of the “commercial” waste (waste generated by stores, office buildings, apart-

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Figure 1. Municipal Solid Waste Landfills in the United States

thousands

10.0

9.0

8.0

7.0

8.0

6.0

5.5

6.0

5.3

4.5

3.4

4.0

3.2

3.1

2.5

2.3

2.0

0.0

1984

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

Source: U.S. EPA and Biocycle Magazine

Figure 2. Municipal Solid Waste Managed at Waste-to-Energy Plants

millions of tons

36.7

40.0

29.5

30.0

20.0

7.5

10.0

2.5

0.0

1980

1985

1990

Source: U.S. EPA

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Figure 3. Curbside Recycling Programs in the United States

thousands

12.0

8.8

10.0

7.3

6.8

8.0

9.3

8.9

7.4

5.4

6.0

3.9

2.8

4.0

2.0

1.0

1.5

0.0

1989

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

Source: Biocycle Magazine

ment houses, and institutions), which comprises about 40% of what is called MSW. They

also increasingly collect and manage residential waste, which comprises the remaining 60%

of MSW.

The Federal Role in MSW Management

While state, local, and private initiatives have played the key role in transforming MSW

management, the federal government has also played an important role in municipal solid

waste management in the last decade, setting minimum national landfill standards under the

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), setting incinerator and landfill emission

standards under the Clean Air Act, and promoting recycling through the use of federal

procurement policy. These regulatory actions are summarized in Table 1.

Interstate Shipment of Waste

Federal court rulings have also had a profound impact on local waste management

programs. In a series of cases, including three Supreme Court decisions since 1992, federal

courts have held that shipments of waste are protected under the interstate commerce clause

of the Constitution. As a result, state and local governments may not prohibit private land-

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Table 1. Federal Regulations on Solid Waste Management

Authority

Regulation

Status

EPA Annual

Cost Estimate

RCRA Subtitle D

Municipal Solid Waste

Landfill Criteria:

Promulgated 10/9/91, with some

subsequent modifications

$330,000,000

location, design, and operating

effective 10/9/93 for large landfills,

4/9/94 for others

groundwater monitoring, and

corrective action

requirements phased in; final compliance deadline 10/9/97

closure and post-closure care

effective 10/9/93 for large landfills,

4/9/94 for others

financial assurance criteria

effective 4/97

RCRA Subtitle D

Non-Municipal Solid Waste

Landfill Criteria

Promulgated 7/1/96; requirements

$12,650,000 took effect 18 months to 2 years after 51,000,000

promulgation

Clean Air Act,

Section 111

Air Emissions from Municipal

Solid Waste Landfills

Promulgated 3/12/96; effective

immediately for new landfills

Clean Air Act,

Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste Combustors (Incinerators):

Sections 111 and 129

Promulgated 2/11/91; effective

combustion practices, carbon

8/12/91

monoxide, dioxins/furans,

particulates, acid gases, nitrogen

oxides; applied only to combustors

with capacity of 250 tons per day or

more

$94,000,000

$472,000,000

maximum achievable control

technology for carbon monoxide,

dioxins, particulate matter, cadmium, lead, mercury, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, nitrogen

oxides; applies to incinerators with

capacity of 35 tons per day or more

Originally promulgated 12/19/95; as $405,000,000

the result of a court decision, EPA

repromulgated the standards for

combustors with capacity >250 tons

per day 8/25/97; regulations for

smaller combustors were reproposed

8/30/99. Effective date of

requirements varies.

RCRA Sections

3001 - 3005

Management of Ash from Municipal Waste Combustors (Incinerators)

not available

Supreme Court ruled May 2, 1994,

that ash was not exempt from

hazardous waste management

regulations, despite EPA guidance to

the contrary. Hazardous waste

testing and management regulations

were promulgated 5/19/80, with

many subsequent amendments.

Executive Orders

12873 and 13101;

RCRA Section 6002

Federal Procurement of Recycled

Products

Procurement guidelines for paper,

not available

retread tires, used oil and insulation

materials took effect in 1988.

Executive Orders 12873 (10/20/93)

and 13101 (9/14/98) strengthened

paper requirements. EPA designated

an additional 19 recycled content

product categories for procurement

preferences 5/1/95; 12 product

categories were added 11/13/97; and

19 more were proposed for addition

8/26/98.

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fills from accepting waste from out-of-state, nor may they impose fees on waste disposal that

discriminate on the basis of origin.

Interstate shipment of waste has become more common in recent years. The reasons

include local shortages of disposal capacity, particularly in the Northeast and on the West

Coast; a national trend toward larger regional disposal facilities; regional differences in the

cost of disposal; and the vertical integration and consolidation of the waste management

industry. Vertically integrated firms offer full service waste management, from collection to

transfer station to disposal. Increasingly, they ship waste to their own disposal site, even

though that may be across a border, rather than dispose of it at an in-state facility owned by

a rival. (For a further discussion of these factors, including state-by-state information on

exports and imports, see CRS Report RL30409, Interstate Shipment of Municipal Solid

Waste: 2000 Update.)

Since 1996, developments in New York City have provoked renewed interest in

interstate waste issues. On May 29, 1996, Governor George Pataki of New York and Mayor

Rudolph Giuliani of New York City announced an agreement that will close New York City’s

one remaining landfill, Fresh Kills, in the year 2001. The city was sending 13,200 tons of

waste per day to the landfill at the time of the decision, and there is little or no capacity in

state to replace it upon its closure. A later report by a task force established to consider

implementation issues recommended that the city begin exporting waste in 1997. As a result,

the city began exporting 1,800 tons per day in July 1997, and an additional 2,500 tons per day

in October 1998. In November, 1999, over the protests of local officials on the receiving

end, the city began shipping an additional 3,200 tons of waste per day to two transfer stations

in New Jersey.

As a result of increased shipments, some of the states with adequate disposal capacity,

or available land, have been groping for ways to limit or prevent it being used for disposal by

others. Numerous methods have been tried, including moratoria on the construction of new

landfills, fees on the disposal of out-of-state waste, limits on daily disposal, bans on disposal

of out-of-area waste, and various planning and capacity assurance requirements. As noted,

however, many of these measures have been struck down under the interstate commerce

clause of the Constitution, and others may be if and when they are reviewed by courts.

Legislative Issues

Should Congress Grant States the Authority to Limit Out-of-State Waste?

While the states may be prevented from regulating interstate commerce, the Constitution

(in Article I, Section 8) expressly gives the power to regulate commerce to the Congress.

This power can be used directly by the federal government or it can be used to authorize state

and local governments to restrict interstate commerce under specified conditions.

The latter approach is the principle behind legislation that has been considered in each

of the last five Congresses. In general, such legislation would give states or local

governments the authority to restrict imports of out-of-state waste, but would protect

existing exporters by grandfathering the level of out-of-state shipments received in each state

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in a specified year prior to the date of enactment. The bills would provide some future relief

to importing states by allowing them to gradually ratchet down imports in future years.

Despite many common features in interstate waste bills, there have been some key

differences in the House and Senate approaches to such legislation. These differences,

combined with the conflicting interests of state and local governments and the opposition of

some elements of the waste management industry, have kept the Congress from reaching

agreement. Differences have included the role of state and local governments: in bills that

have passed the Senate, local governments could request the Governor to restrict imports,

but could not take action themselves; in bills passing the House, local governments played the

central role, deciding whether or not to allow new interstate waste shipments at local

facilities. A second basic difference has concerned the structure of the authority: House

versions of legislation have generally contained a “presumptive ban” on new interstate waste

shipments that would prevent new shipments unless the affected government in the receiving

area gave permission; in bills passing the Senate, new waste shipments would have been

allowed unless the Governor took action to stop them. (For a further discussion of issues, see

CRS Report RS20106, Interstate Waste Transport: Legislative Issues.)

As of April 24, 2000, seven bills (H.R. 378, H.R. 379, H.R. 891, H.R. 1190, S. 533, S.

663, and S. 872) had been introduced to address interstate waste issues in the 106th Congress;

none had been acted on. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a

hearing on S. 533 and S. 872, June 17, 1999.

Should States and Localities Be Allowed to Control the Flow of Privately

Collected Waste?

Whether state and local governments can designate where privately collected waste must

be disposed (through what are called “flow control” laws) has also been the subject of court

challenges. In May 1994, in the case of C & A Carbone v. Clarkstown, the Supreme Court

held that flow control also violates the interstate commerce clause.

According to EPA, 39 states and the District of Columbia have enacted flow control

laws or provided for it indirectly through home rule or planning authority. Since 1980, about

$10 billion in municipal bonds have been issued to pay for the construction of solid waste

facilities. In many of these cases, flow control authority was used to guarantee the

investment. Flow control also has benefitted recycling facilities in cases where recycling was

financed by fees collected at designated incinerators or landfills. In the process, however, it

created a monopoly and prohibited facilities outside the jurisdiction from offering competitive

services.

In the wake of the Carbone decision, at least 18 bond issues valued at $2 billion were

downgraded by the rating services, some to a level below investment grade. In these and

other cases, local governments responded by cutting tipping (disposal) fees to remain

competitive, raising revenues from new taxes or fees, and cutting elements of their solid waste

programs. No local government defaulted on a solid waste bond issue, but there was a

difficult adjustment in some cases. As a result, the National Association of Counties, National

League of Cities, U.S. Conference of Mayors and many individual local governments have

strongly advocated the restoration of flow control authority.

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New Jersey has been at the center of much of the discussion on flow control. In the

1980s, New Jersey developed a statewide system of flow control to support the construction

of waste management facilities that would replace existing substandard landfills and eventually

control exports of waste to other states. On July 15, 1996, however, a federal District Court,

relying on the Carbone decision, overturned the state’s flow control requirements in the case

of Atlantic Coast Demolition & Recycling Inc. v. Atlantic County. The county and state

exhausted their appeals in October 1997. Without flow control, a large amount of New

Jersey’s waste has begun to leave the state because of cheaper disposal elsewhere.

As in the case of waste import restrictions, Congress can authorize the use of flow

control, using its authority under the commerce clause. Most bills that have addressed this

subject would grandfather flow control arrangements at facilities designated as of May 15,

1994 (the day prior to the Supreme Court decision), with the authority expiring at the end of

the useful life of a designated facility or the completion of the schedule for payment of the

facility’s capital costs. In some bills, flow control arrangements would also be grandfathered

in cases where they supported recycling programs.

As of April 24, three bills addressing flow control had been introduced in the 106th

Congress: S. 663, S. 872, and H.R. 1270. No action has been taken on these bills.

Should Remediation Waste Be Exempt from Hazardous Waste Regulation?

Over the past several years, both the Administration and leaders of the relevant

congressional subcommittees have expressed support for amendments that might improve

RCRA by removing certain high-cost, low-benefit requirements. One goal of such legislation

would be to speed cleanup of hazardous waste sites by exempting low-risk wastes at cleanup

sites (termed “remediation waste”) from hazardous waste management standards.

The issue is whether low-risk remediation waste needs to be subjected to the full set of

requirements for hazardous waste generated by current industrial operations. In October

1997, Senators Lott, Chafee, and Smith (NH) announced release of a GAO report which

concluded that three requirements in particular (land disposal restrictions, minimum

technological requirements for treatment of the waste, and requirements for permits) may be

unduly stringent for a significant portion of remediation waste. The requirements increase the

time required for cleanups and add as much as $2.1 billion annually to cleanup costs.

After release of the GAO report, Senator Lott circulated a draft bill for comment, EPA

released a set of principles that it would like to see in remediation waste legislation, and there

were discussions among House and Senate staff and interested parties concerning the content

of draft legislation. While there has been general support for such legislation from industry,

environmental groups, states, and the Administration, there were several issues under

discussion, including the definition of remediation waste, the treatment standards to be

applied, whether some kind of modified permit would be required, the degree of public

participation to be required in developing remedial action plans, and the respective roles of

EPA and state environmental agencies.

Despite much discussion of draft legislation, no bills were introduced on the subject in

the 105th Congress. With limited time remaining in the second session, on September 3, 1998,

Senators Lott, Chafee, and Smith announced that efforts to enact such legislation would have

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to wait until the 106th Congress. Subsequently, on November 30, 1998, EPA promulgated

a rule (the Hazardous Waste Identification Rule, or HWIR rule, for media) that exempted

most remediation waste from land disposal and permit requirements; and in a February 17,

1999 statement to the press, an EPA official was quoted as saying that the Agency would

“withhold judgment” on the need for legislation while working on a settlement to litigation

filed by two environmental groups and a trade association representing the hazardous waste

treatment industry.

Thus, the momentum for congressional action on the issue subsided. As of April 24,

2000, no bills had been introduced on this subject in the Senate. In the House, Representative

Oxley introduced H.R. 2718 on August 5, 1999. The bill would authorize EPA to establish

separate requirements for remediation waste and would authorize state remediation waste

programs. No action has been taken on the bill.

Should the United States Implement the Basel Convention on International

Movement of Waste?

Concerned about the potential impacts of exporting hazardous waste to countries that

may not be able to assure environmentally sound management, 116 countries agreed to the

Basel Convention on the Control of the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and

Their Disposal in March 1989. The United States played a key role in developing the

Convention, and the United States signed it in 1990, but ratification would require

implementing legislation, which the Congress has not passed. Such legislation has not been

considered since 1992.

At present, more than 130 countries have ratified the Convention, including Canada,

Mexico, Japan, and the countries of the European Union. Countries that are not parties to

the Convention, such as the United States, cannot trade waste with those that have ratified

unless they negotiate bilateral agreements that provide equivalent protections. (The United

States has bilateral agreements with Canada and Mexico, which have traditionally been our

largest waste trade partners, and two less significant partners, Costa Rica and Malaysia. The

United States also has an agreement that allows trade in recyclable wastes with members of

the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.) Nevertheless, failure to

ratify the Basel Convention limits access to international markets for U.S. recycling,

reclamation, and waste management companies. The State Department also notes that failure

to ratify weakens the U.S. bargaining position in other environmental negotiations.

As a result, the Administration renewed its interest in seeing implementing legislation

adopted, and at the outset of the 106th Congress, both the House Commerce and Senate

Environment and Public Works Committees were believed to be interested in addressing the

matter. While most interested parties now back some form of implementation, the biggest

issue initially would be whether Congress should consider only the original 1989 Convention

or should also ratify and implement a 1995 amendment that (if ratified by three quarters of

the Parties) would ban the export of hazardous waste from developed to developing

countries, even for wastes destined for recovery and recycling. The Administration is

believed to be leaning toward the ban amendment, but significant opposition from segments

of industry might be expected if the amendment were submitted for ratification.

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Legislation to implement Basel would also have to provide EPA additional authority in

a number of respects. Defining the limits of that authority and the procedural safeguards

accompanying it might present numerous issues. To implement the Convention, legislation

must include: the authority to prevent waste export if the Agency determines that the waste

will not be managed in an environmentally sound manner; the obligation to reimport waste

shipped illegally or not managed in an environmentally sound manner; controls on shipment

of municipal solid waste and MSW combustion ash; and authority to control imports as well

as exports of waste. All of these are currently lacking in RCRA.

A particular challenge might be how to expand authority over international transfer of

waste without at the same time burdening domestic commerce in such waste. The Basel

Convention, for example, covers more hazardous wastes than are identified by RCRA, and

while industry is generally believed to be supportive of Basel implementation, industry and

the Congress would be unlikely to support broad expansion of EPA's regulatory authority

over wastes managed within the United States as part of the package. (For additional

information on the Basel Convention, see CRS Report 98-638, Waste Trade and the Basel

Convention: Background and Update.)

LEGISLATION

Note: The principal federal law governing management of solid and hazardous waste

is the Solid Waste Disposal Act. This law has been amended on eight occasions since its

passage in 1965. The 1976 amendments, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

(RCRA), were so comprehensive that the act has generally been referred to as RCRA since

that time. This issue brief follows that convention, referring to RCRA, when the correct

reference should be to the Solid Waste Disposal Act.

H.R. 79 (Bilirakis)

Amends RCRA to exempt pesticide rinse water degradation systems from hazardous

waste permit requirements. Introduced January 6, 1999; referred to Committee on

Commerce.

H.R. 286 (Sweeney)

Hazardous Waste Recycling Tax Credit Act of 1999. Provides a tax credit of two cents

per pound for the recycling of hazardous waste. Introduced January 6, 1999; referred to

Committee on Ways and Means.

H.R. 378 (Gillmor)

Amends RCRA to authorize states to ban, regulate, or collect fees on import of solid

waste from other states. Authorizes interstate compacts for solid waste management.

Introduced January 19, 1999; referred to Committee on Commerce.

H.R. 379 (Gillmor)

Amends RCRA to permit states to prohibit disposal of solid waste imported from outside

the United States unless authorized by a host community agreement. Introduced January 19,

1999; referred to Committee on Commerce.

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H.R. 778 (Andrews)

Authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to require the use of recycled materials in the

construction of federal-aid highway projects. Introduced February 23, 1999; referred to

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

H.R. 779 (Andrews)

Requires that 10% of a state's allocation under the Surface Transportation Program

must be used for the purchase of recycled materials. Introduced February 23, 1999; referred

to Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

H.R. 891 (Kanjorski)

Solid Waste Compact Act. Amends RCRA to allow states whose state solid waste

management plans have been approved by EPA to prohibit the importation of solid waste

from outside the State. Introduced March 2, 1999; referred to Committee on Commerce.

H.R. 1190 (Greenwood)

Solid Waste Interstate Transportation and Local Authority Act of 1999. Amends RCRA

to establish a presumptive ban on importation of out-of-state municipal solid waste unless

such importation is authorized by a host community agreement or grandfathered, and to

authorize state and local flow control. Introduced March 18, 1999; referred to Committee

on Commerce.

H.R. 1270 (Minge)

Taxpayer Relief Through Municipal Waste Control Act of 1999. Amends RCRA to

authorize flow control of municipal solid waste and to exempt states and their political

subdivisions from civil liability with respect to the passage, implementation, and enforcement

of flow control ordinances. Introduced March 24, 1999; referred to Committee on

Commerce.

H.R. 2407 (Rivers)

Amends the Toxic Substances Control Act to establish requirements regarding the

approval of facilities for the disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Introduced August

2, 1999; referred to Committee on Commerce.

H.R. 2676 (Rivers)

National Beverage Container Reuse and Recycling Act of 1999. Amends the Solid

Waste Disposal Act to require a refund value for beverage containers and to provide

resources for State pollution prevention and recycling programs. Introduced August 2, 1999;

referred to Committee on Commerce.

H.R. 2718 (Oxley)

Brownfields Remediation Waste Act. Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to provide

for the management of remediation waste at brownfields and other remediation sites.

Introduced August 5, 1999; referred to Committee on Commerce.

H.R. 3093 (Franks)

Amends RCRA to prevent the release of hazardous waste due to flooding. Introduced

October 18, 1999; referred to Committees on Commerce and on Transportation and

Infrastructure.

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H.R. 3656 (Bilirakis)

Amends RCRA to reauthorize EPA's Office of Ombudsman. Introduced February 15,

2000; referred to Committee on Commerce.

H.R. 3798 (Forbes)

Amends RCRA to accelerate the cleanup of MTBE released from leaking underground

storage tanks, among other purposes. Introduced March 1, 2000; referred to Committee on

Commerce.

S. 267 (Feinstein)

Amends RCRA to direct the Administrator of EPA to give highest priority to releases

of petroleum into drinking water in issuing corrective action orders under the underground

storage tank response program. Introduced January 20, 1999; referred to Committee on

Environment and Public Works.

S. 533 (Robb)

Interstate Transportation of Municipal Solid Waste Control Act of 1999. Amends RCRA

to authorize local governments and Governors to restrict receipt of out-of-state municipal

solid waste. Introduced March 4, 1999; referred to Committee on Environment and Public

Works.

S. 663 (Specter)

Solid Waste Interstate Transportation and Local Authority Act of 1999. Amends RCRA

to impose certain limitations on the receipt of out-of-state municipal solid waste and to

authorize state and local controls over the flow of municipal solid waste. Identical to H.R.

1190. Introduced March 18, 1999; referred to Committee on Environment and Public Works.

S. 859 (Jeffords)

National Beverage Container Reuse and Recycling Act of 1999. Amends RCRA to

require a refund value for beverage containers and to provide resources for State pollution

prevention and recycling programs. Introduced April 22, 1999; referred to Committee on

Environment and Public Works.

S. 872 (Voinovich)

Municipal Solid Waste Interstate Transportation and Local Authority Act of 1999.

Amends RCRA to allow states and local governments to impose limits on the receipt of

out-of-State municipal solid waste and to authorize state and local flow control. Introduced

April 22, 1999; referred to Committee on Environment and Public Works. Hearing

scheduled June 17, 1999.

S. 1763 (Allard)

Amends RCRA to reauthorize EPA's Office of Ombudsman. Introduced October 21,

1999; referred to Committee on Environment and Public Works.

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CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS, REPORTS, AND DOCUMENTS

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Environment and Public Works. Municipal Solid

Waste and Flow Control. June 17, 1999.

-----. Transportation and Flow Control of Solid Waste. S. Hrg. 105-72. March 18, 1997.

FOR ADDITIONAL READING

U.S. General Accounting Office. Remediation Waste Requirements Can Increase the Time

and Cost of Cleanups. October 1997. 24 p. GAO/RCED-98-4.

CRS Report 98-689. Interstate Shipment of Municipal Solid Waste: 2000 Update, by James

E. McCarthy. January 19, 2000. 18 p.

CRS Report RS20106, Interstate Waste Transport: Legislative Issues, by James E.

McCarthy. Updated June 16, 1999. 6 p.

CRS Report 98-638. Waste Trade and the Basel Convention: Background and Update, by

Mary E. Tiemann. December 30, 1998. 6 p.

CRS-12