Agenda - Council - 11/25/1980 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- 2 - to the entire State. Obviously, criteria become very important to the selection process. Depending on the criteria, any locality in Minnesota, including yours, could be selected as a site for this facility. In keeping with both the spirit and letter of the Waste Management Act, the Minnesota Waste Management Board will select criteria and candidate sites only after extensive public involvement at the local level. As a local official, you and/or a representative of your community are invited and encouraged to participate in this process. If you i~nore this public input process, then your community may not be fully represented as criteria are discussed and selected. Enclosed with this memo is a reply card.-Please return it to us with the names and mailing addresses of the person or-persons from your community who will help Minnesota select criteria for the siting of a hazardous waste land disposal facility. The persons whose names you give us, together with other interested citizens, will form a criteria and siting committee in your Development Region. A similar committee will be formed in each of the 13 Development Regions of th'e State. Regional Development Commission staff representatives may help the committees by arranging meeting space, taking minutes, sending notices, etc. The committees will meet at least twice between now and May 1981. Their job is to give the Waste Management Board significant input into the process of select- ing-criteria and sites for a hazardous waste disposal-facility. Also enclosed is a step-by-step schedule which details the procedures the Waste Management Board will follow in selecting candidate and final sites for the disposal facility. As you can see, there is also opportunity for public involve- ment after the candidate sites have been selected. Your involvement prior to that time, however, can help determine whether or not your community is in the final list. Another enclosure for your consideration before our upcoming meetings is a fact sheet on siting factors that have been suggested to us. Some of these factors might eliminate your area from further consideration. Others might identify your community as a likely location for a hazardous waste disposal site. Although we are listing these factors without endorsement, we will have to choose between them soon so we can identify sites. So come to the meeting in your Development Region if you agree or disagree with these factors or if you have others to propose. We want your recommendations and suggestions on the criteria, standards, and procedures we should use in selecting candidate sites, either at the meeting or by .letter before then. Your community is a possible site for a hazardous waste 'disposal facility. Your community should help the Waste Management Board determine where and on ' what basis this facility ought to be sited. We have no preconceived notions. We ~o, however, agree with the Legislature that hazardous, non-nuclear waste is a problem and that something has to be done. We also know that the problem, while serious, is not yet critical. Together we can find a solution. But we need your help to do it. Please send us the names of your community representatives no later than November 21, 1~80. RGD:mhr Enclosures