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Friday, August 22, 1997
AMSA Voices Support for Draft Municipal Settlement Policy
AMSA submitted comments earlier this week in strong support of EPA’s Draft Municipal Settlement Policy and urged the Agency to adopt it in final form as soon as possible. The policy was noticed in the July 11, 1997 Federal Register. 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.In its comments, AMSA supported 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. AMSA also recommended that EPA consider lowering these amounts to further limit municipal liability. A proposed hardship provisions and allowances for in-kind contributions, which consider the ability of the municipality to pay, were cited as positive steps in this direction.
In addition, AMSA 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.
Superfund Liability Relief for POTWs Still at Issue
The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee is expected to take up Superfund reauthorization in September. For over a year, AMSA has been actively engaged in discussions with committee staff regarding POTW liability for hazardous waste that may have escaped through the collection system. Recently, key Committee staff have contacted the AMSA to accelerate negotiations regarding our proposed amendment to remedy this matter. Meetings with Hill staff are planned for the near future and will begin next week.
- There will be no FaxAlert next week, due to the approaching Labor Day holiday. The FaxAlert will resume on September 5.
- Registration materials and program for the 1997 joint AMSA-EPA Pretreatment Coordinators’ Workshop in Norfolk, VA on November 5-7 were sent this week via MU97-19. A second notice on AMSA’s CSO Permit Negotiation Workshop, September 25-26 in Cincinnati, Ohio will be in the mail early next week. Please note that August 31 is the hotel reservation cut-off for the CSO Workshop.