Agenda - Council - 01/22/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- 2 - their communities. The current Plan under review does not make reference to this report and we feel that it should, since no comprehensive report on waste management should ignore the impact of landfills on the host communities. Even though the above referred to Compensation Report is not as thorough as it should be, it does address the general problems landfills create for host communities. As background information, each council member should review the December, 1982 Ramsey Staff report entitled "Report by the City of Ramsey on the Impact of Landfills in its Community". This two (2) volume Ramsey report does contain a copy of the August, 1982 Metropolitan Council's Mitigation and Compensation report. We feel that an additional chapter should be added to the Plan under consideration which additional chapter should deal exclusively with the affect of the Plan on host communities as well as outline a regional program to assist host communities with existing landfills. The Plan, on page 62 states "Implementation of the waste reduction and resource recovery development program will significantly reduce the amount of waste requiring land disposal, by about 50 percent." In several sections, the Plan indicates that while the goal is to use other means to avoid landfilling, landfilling will be essential for the short term as well as necessary, albeit to a lesser extent, for the long term. It is because of this obvious information that Ramsey should be vitally concerned with the Plan and how it addresses host community needs relating to landfill sites as well as burn sites. The Plan should include long term methods by which host communities may be compensated for the adverse environmental and economical impacts of hosting a landfill and/or burn site. Environmental impacts such as increased truck traffic, noise, litter, surface and ground water contamination, and air pollution should be addressed in the Plan. For example, if a Ramsey resident's well becomes polluted by landfill contamination, exactly who, or what agency is going to solve this problem? A determination of this type of information prior to an emergency situation will greatly aid resolution of the problem when the need arises. With regard to economic impacts, several areas need to be addressed, some of which may even require additional State Legtstation. As you are aware, the 1984 legislature authorized a 90 Cper cubic yard tipping charge on each cubic yard of refuse accepted by landfills commencing January 1, 1985. This 90¢ is distributed as follows: 50 t to the region 25¢ to the County and 15 ¢ to the host community. Ramsey adopted its tipping charge ordinance in the fall of 1984 and will therefore be collecting its 15 ¢ per yard commencing this month. It is estimated that this will amount to approximately $10,000.00 to $15,000.00 per month for Ramsey.