Reineke to Introduce Legislation Modernizing Local Landfill Oversight

COLUMBUS—State Senator Bill Reineke (R-Tiffin) next week will introduce legislation impacting the constituents of Senate District 26 and other portions of Northwest Ohio dealing with local landfill issues.

“My constituents have been struggling with trash coming in from out of state, mostly from New York through our beautiful countryside into Fostoria in Seneca County. Most of this has occurred without any meaningful oversight or supervision from local or state officials," said Reineke. "Therefore, after years of discussion and debate, I am introducing legislation to deal with these matters once and for all. It has become very apparent to me, as the chair of the Ohio Senate’s Select Committee on Rail Safety, that contents of trains are verified by the end user, with the oversight of the local health department, so we need to make sure they have the means to implement appropriate oversight over our landfills.”

The legislation being proposed by Senator Reineke would do the following:

• Allow Local Input Into Landfill Decisions: The bill will provide local citizens with oversight in landfill expansion decisions. For many years, local voices have been ignored in landfill decisions – local impacts make a difference.
• Fee Adjustments and Equalization: Local agencies must have the funding to be able to have oversight on landfills around the state. The bill proposes a fee increase from statutory rates that have been in effect since 1992.  One component of this will be to equalize trash fees to prevent Ohio from becoming the trash depot center of the East Coast. The bill would ensure that fees are equal for trash regardless of whether the trash comes from other parts of Ohio or from out of state.  Additionally, the bill changes the idea that construction debris is any less trash than other trash.
• Assisting Local Health Districts: The bill proposes assisting local health districts, by requesting an exit plan for a solid waste district participant, a County, which contributes 75% or more to a solid waste district, can exit that district and become its own county district. The results of this are that the funding stays in the county where the landfill exists and can provide much-needed oversight to that landfill, reassuring constituents that there is adequate oversight.

“The State of Ohio has been very forward in inviting new businesses to our state. I applaud all of those efforts, however, with those great innovations and technological changes coming, we also need to be on top of our trash situation," Reineke said. "Ohio is also the destination for trash because of our reluctance to recognize exactly the need to be doing more with recycling. With local oversight, our constituents need to be assured that the air we breathe and the water we drink are clean and that the contents of trains coming through our state are adequately monitored. I look forward to the future hearings and debate on this bill.”