Resolution - #91-10-224 - 10/08/1991

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Councilmember Councilmember Peterson introduced the following resolution and moved for its adoption: RESOLUTION #91-10-224 RESOLUTION URGING CONGRESSIONAL RELIEF FROM APPLICATION OF SUPERFUND STATUTE WHEREAS, the City of Ramsey, Minnesota, strongly supports the general concept of the Supeffund Statute (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act) which makes parties who have created, transported, managed, or disposed of hazardous waste liable for the cost of hazardous waste cleanup; and WHEREAS, under the Superfund Statute, hazardous waste site polluters acquire the right to sue fellow polluters to share the cleanup expense; and WHEREAS, polluters have discovered a means of attempting to shift the costs of hazardous waste site cleanup to taxpayers of the nation by suing city governments for their volume of municipal solid waste placed in landfills, thereby causing enormous legal costs and potentially unfair economic effects on city governments throughout the nation; and WHEREAS, the Superfund Statute does not and should not focus on municipal solid waste; and WHEREAS, the Environmental Protection Policy recently adopted an Interim Municipal Settlement Policy that it would not routinely pursue local governments under Superfund, acknowledging that only a tiny fraction of municipal solid waste may be toxic; and WHEREAS, that policy does nothing to stop polluters from launching expensive and often frivolous lawsuits against city governments, many of whom have only arranged for or licensed the pick up and hauling of municipal solid waste from within their respective borders; and WHEREAS, such lawsuits are beginning to yield results whereby the nation's cities, school districts, very small businesses, and potentially citizens are prospects to be sued by polluters; and WHEREAS, the City of Anoka has recently been targeted by polluters under the Superfund Statute as a potentially responsible party; and WHEREAS, the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and its amendments, along with EPA's regulations thereunder, treat household wastes according to non-hazardous solid waste standards. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RAMSEY, ANOKA COUNTY, STATE OF MINNESOTA, as follows: 1) That our Congressional representatives be re'ged to support: Amending the Superfund Statute to clearly provide that municipal solid waste is not a hazardous substance in the same fashion as provided under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.