Measure on landfill fee advances

Bill would make permanent prohibitions on use of trust fund

The Arkansas House’s Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee and then the full House approved last week a bill that would keep a fee intended for post-closure work at landfills from going toward the recycling of electronics.

House Bill 1669, sponsored by Rep. Ken Bragg, R-Sheridan, now is before the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee.

The bill makes special language approved by the Legislature last year permanent and would keep fees paid by companies each time they dump trash into a landfill from going toward anything other than landfill post-closure work.

Outside of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and Bragg, no one has spoken for or against the bill.

Michael Grappe, department director of special programs, told the Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee Feb. 28 that the state had dozens of landfills that eventually may need the landfill money, and noted that one project in Mountain Home is expected to cost the department $15 million, most of the $17 million the department currently has in landfill money.

Districts have used electronics-recycling funds for various programs, including to collect electronics, which are banned from landfills. Under the bill, districts would continue to receive electronics-recycling funds from unspent money collected during previous years.

The Environmental Quality Department has $10 million left. Each district would receive a portion of $2.5 million that the department will make available each fiscal year until it runs out.

Eventually, spokesman Donnally Davis said, the department expects the private sector to be “fully engaged in e-waste commerce.”

The bill was a part of the Department of Environmental Quality’s proposed legislation for 2017.

The landfill post-closure trust fund was created to pay for maintenance and repairs after a landfill closes..

Companies pay a $2.50 fee into the trust fund each time they use a landfill. A 1991 law created the trust fund, allocating $1 of the fee toward post-closure needs and $1.50 for solid-waste management and recycling. Once the post-closure fund reached $25 million, collection of the $1 portion of the fee would cease. It would begin again once the fund dropped to $15 million.

In 2007, the Legislature banned electronic waste in landfills, prompting legislation to address recycling of such material. Act 512 was passed to provide funds for electronic-waste recycling by keeping the $1 post-closure fund fee in place, even when the post-closure fund exceeded $25 million.

As the trust fund dwindled back to $15 million last year, to prevent companies from having to pay a $3.50 landfill fee each time, the Environmental Quality Department sought special language to keep the $1 fee from being collected again.