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Good afternoon Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member and distinguished members of the
Committee. My name is Robert Orlin, and I am the Deputy Commissioner for Legal
Affairs of the New York City Department of Sanitation. I appreciate the
opportunity to testify this afternoon on the legislation pending before your
Committee - - legislation that could have a profound impact on the City's
day-to-day municipal solid waste operations.
The decision by top New York State and New York City elected officials to
close the Fresh Kills landfill by December 31, 2001 paved the way for the City
to progress on a new path in managing its solid waste. From the outset, New York
City closed Fresh Kills responsibly and appropriately, with due consideration
for the States and their communities that have chosen to accept the City's
waste. With the exception of the temporary reopening of Fresh Kills after the
tragedy of September 11, 2001, the City completed a five-phase program to close
Fresh Kills when it sent its last barge of Department-collected solid waste to
the landfill in March 2001.
Central to the City's closure plan was the City's absolute commitment that
all of the City's exported waste would be disposed of in communities that have
expressly chosen to accept such waste through valid, legally binding Host
Community Agreements. Since the City only exports to willing jurisdictions, the
City does not believe it is necessary to enact legislation requiring New York
City to do that which it already requires of itself.
The federal courts have consistently upheld municipal solid waste shipments
as a commodity in interstate commerce, and over the years, communities have
relied on the certainty these decisions provide for protecting long-term, free
market plans to manage solid waste. This is especially important in a landscape
where the most rigorous environmental protection required under Subtitle D of
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act have compelled communities and
private companies to replace old, small landfills with larger, costlier, state
of the art, regional facilities that comply with the more protective law.
For many communities and States, municipal solid waste disposal fees are an
important revenue stream. The City believes that each locality has the right to
accept or reject out-of-State solid waste - not by federal legislation, but by
locally decided Host Community Agreements.
In securing contracts for waste disposal exclusively at Host Community
Agreement sites, the City has furthered a partnership that benefits importer and
exporter alike. As the nation's largest and most densely-populated city of eight
million people, the ability to send waste to newer, more advanced regional
facilities located outside the City's boundaries acknowledges the very
environmental, demographic, and geographical realities that made closing Fresh
Kills necessary. For those localities that have chosen to import our waste, the
revenue generated through host fees, licensing fees and taxes has substantially
enhanced their local economies, improved area infrastructure, paid for
construction of new schools, paved roads and assisted host communities in
meeting their own waste management needs. Clearly, many other jurisdictions
nationwide share New York's approach, since 42 States import and 49 States and
Washington, DC export municipal solid waste.
For New York City and the vendors to which it awards contracts for the
disposal of municipal solid waste, the elements of certainty and long-term waste
management arrangements are fundamental to making New York a viable place to
live and work. Any disruption to the contracts between the City and its vendors,
or agreements between vendors and host communities that solidify the City's
waste disposal framework, would detrimentally impact the City's day-to-day
municipal waste operations. For this reason, the City strongly supports the
importing community's right to negotiate a Host Community Agreement that is most
suited to the locality's particular needs and that spells out the provisions
that make waste disposal from out-of-State acceptable to the locality.
Conversely, the City will rely on private sector bidding to select the most
competitive price for disposal. Once formally agreed to, these agreements and
contracts must be honored in order to preserve the mutual interests of both
importers and exporters.
In that regard, the City has not pre-determined where its municipal solid
waste will be disposed. Instead, it has implemented measures to ensure that each
bidder has all of the requisite environmental permits, along with a Host
Community Agreement that verifies the receiving jurisdiction's approval of the
disposal facility and its acceptance of the imported waste. Additionally, the
existing authority that States have in permitting solid waste facilities in
accordance with their own regulatory mandates, zoning ordinances and land use
provisions suggests even less cause for federal intervention through legislation
to restrict exports.
New York City is not solely dependent on exporting municipal solid waste
through private disposal markets. New York City has one of the most ambitious -
- and certainly the largest - - recycling program in the nation. New York City's
recycling program is the only large city program that requires 100 percent of
its households - - including residents of large multi-family buildings - - to
recycle. Additionally, the Mayor's Directive to all City agencies that all
employees reduce workplace waste and establish accountability measures for waste
reduction has further reduced the daily tonnage of export.
New York City's residents are major consumers of goods manufactured in and
shipped from other States. The waste generated by the packaging materials to
ship these goods is significant. For this reason, the Mayor supports federal
legislation that would place limitations on packaging content or require
manufacturers to use minimum percentages of recycled content in packaging
material. These requirements would have a measurable effect on the quantity of
exported solid waste. Despite the City's best waste reduction and recycling
efforts, however, the City will still need to dispose of a substantial portion
of its solid waste outside its boundaries.
I thank the Committee for the opportunity to appear today, and underscore the
City's interest and commitment in addressing Congress' concerns regarding the
interstate transport of municipal solid waste.
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