Cheaper Waste Dumping Passes House Passes Bill Despite North Idaho Duo’s Objections

Legislation lowering the fees for dumping hazardous waste in Idaho passed the House on Monday over the objections of two North Idaho representatives.

“I think this is bad policy that we’re setting with this bill,” said Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Hayden. “We’re trying to attract more waste into Idaho.”

North Idaho’s experience with its giant Superfund site in the Silver Valley should be lesson enough to the rest of the state, Alltus said. Encouraging more hazardous waste to be brought in now could mean problems down the road, he warned.

Alltus and Rep. Jim Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint, were the only two North Idaho representatives voting against the bill, which passed 51-17. It passed the Senate earlier, and now goes back for concurrence with an amendment added in the House.

The bill originally would have cut hazardous waste fees from $30 per ton to $10 a ton for anything over 25,000 tons of waste. The House amendment substituted $20 for the discounted $10 rate.

Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum, who carried the bill in the House, said the state Division of Environmental Quality needs the money from the fee to support its hazardous waste program.

Fees paid by Envirosafe Services, a hazardous waste dump at Grand View, south of Boise, have dropped because there’s less hazardous waste being generated and disposed of.

The fee decrease is “to allow Envirosafe to be more competitive in the market, to attract more business,” Meyer said.

He added, “The DEQ is concerned about their funding.”

The bill was proposed jointly by the DEQ and Envirosafe. It’s based on estimates that with the fee decrease, Envirosafe could bring more waste into the state and generate as much as $275,000 more in fees each year.

, DataTimes