Other Items of Interest
AMSA Extends Support for EPA Draft Municipal Settlement Policy
AMSA submitted comments in mid-August expressing its strong support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Draft Municipal Settlement Policy, which was noticed in the July 11, 1997 Federal Register, and urged the Agency to adopt it as a final policy as soon as possible. AMSA believes this policy will equitably and expeditiously resolve Superfund liability issues for local governments, school boards and small businesses that stem from their municipal solid waste(MSW)/municipal sewage sludge (MSS) activities. Once the policy is adopted, it should ease the litigation that has saddled cities and towns because they owned or operated municipal landfills or sent garbage or sewage sludge to landfills that were also used by generators and transporters of industrial hazardous wastes. AMSA came out in support of the 20% baseline settlement cap for local government owners/operators and the unit cost cap of $3.05/ton as the baseline settlement amount for generators/transporters of MSW/MSS. The Association also recommended that EPA consider lowering these amounts to further limit municipal liability. The proposed hardship provisions in the proposal and allowance for in-kind contributions, which considers the ability of the municipality to pay, were cited as positive steps in this direction. AMSA also urged that three aspects of the proposed policy be improved: (1) the policy should apply to local government owners and operators of MSW-only sites as well as co-disposal sites; (2) the policy should apply to local governments at sites where there are not other viable parties; and (3) the policy at co-disposal sites should include sewage sludge incinerator ash in addition to MSW and sewage sludge. CONTACT: Sam Hadeed, AMSA, 202/833-4655.