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Senate advances comprehensive waste-management bill, limits out-of-state disposals
Summary
Senate Bill 255, a comprehensive waste-management bill, was amended and advanced; sponsors said it would require permits for commercial disposal facilities, cap or tightly limit new out-of-state waste inflows after existing pipeline projects, and establish fee structures and statewide planning to protect Utah from becoming a dumping ground.
Senate Bill 255, described on the floor as a major policy effort to set comprehensive statewide waste-management and hazardous-waste controls, was amended and advanced to third reading. The floor sponsor said the measure requires commercial disposal facilities to obtain permits and includes processes that would make expansion of out-of-state waste imports unlikely beyond currently approved pipeline projects.
The sponsor said the bill resulted from hours of meetings with county officials, industry attorneys and the Department of Health and that it includes a fee structure to fund implementation, planning requirements for hazardous and solid waste, and a higher level of local and gubernatorial involvement for large commercial disposal approvals. Several senators declared conflicts of interest for past representation of waste companies but the bill moved forward with recorded votes (reported as 25 ayes, 2 nays, 2 absent) and was placed on the third-reading calendar.
