Waste Industry Wants Pennsylvania To Ease Regulation

Lynn Schenkman

Philadelphia –- Waste industry officials are protesting a 2-year-old Pennsylvania regulation that is preventing more trash from entering the state’s borders. In an attempt to cap garbage imports, for which Pennsylvania ranks No. 1 in the nation, the Commonwealth Court passed the "harms-benefits test" in December 2000. The regulation states that new landfills or additions to existing landfills can be rejected if the potential harm is greater than any social or economic benefits. Since the regulation was approved, the state has used it to deny an expansion of the Alliance Sanitary Landfill near Scranton, Pa. Waste industry leaders are being joined by coal, chemical and construction industry officials who fear their businesses will be affected by the harms-benefit test, too.