Bill Text: NJ A2128 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Increases host community benefit for municipalities wherein solid waste transfer stations are located from fifty cents to one dollar per ton of solid waste processed at such facilities.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-11 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee [A2128 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A2128-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman UPENDRA J. CHIVUKULA
District 17 (Middlesex and Somerset)
SYNOPSIS
Increases host community benefit for municipalities wherein solid waste transfer stations are located from fifty cents to one dollar per ton of solid waste processed at such facilities.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning host community benefits, and amending P.L.1987, c.449.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 2 of P.L.1987, c.449 (C.13:1E-28.1) is amended to read as follows:
2. a. Any municipality within which a registered transfer station is located pursuant to an adopted and approved district solid waste management plan shall be entitled to an annual economic benefit to be paid or adjusted not less than quarterly in an amount established by agreement with the owner or operator of the transfer station or by order of the [Board of Public Utilities] Department of Environmental Protection, but not less than the equivalent of [$0.50] $1.00 per ton of all solid waste accepted for transfer at the transfer station during the [1987] previous calendar year and each year thereafter.
As used in this section, "registered transfer station" means a solid waste facility that is designated by a public authority or county in its adopted district solid waste management plan as approved by the department prior to November 10, 1997 as the in-county facility to which solid waste generated within the boundaries of the county is transported for transfer for transportation to an offsite solid waste facility or designated out-of-district disposal site for disposal, as appropriate, pursuant to interdistrict or intradistrict waste flow orders issued by the department.
The owner or operator of the transfer station shall, not less frequently than quarterly, pay to the relevant municipality the full amount due under this subsection and each relevant municipality is empowered to anticipate this amount for the purposes of preparing its annual budget. For the purposes of calculating the payments, the owner or operator of the transfer station may, subject to the prior agreement of the relevant municipality and the approval of the [Board of Public Utilities] department, provide the municipality with any of the following benefits in consideration for the use of land within its municipal boundaries as the location of a transfer station:
(1) The receipt of quarterly payments of annual sums of money in lieu of taxes on the land used for the transfer station;
(2) The exemption from all fees and charges for the acceptance for transfer of solid waste generated within its boundaries;
(3) The receipt of quarterly lump sum cash payments; or
(4) Any combination thereof.
b. Every owner or operator of a transfer station required to make payments not less frequently than quarterly to a municipality pursuant to subsection a. of this section may petition the [Board of
Public Utilities] Department of Environmental Protection for an increase in its tariff which reflects these payments. The [board] department, within 60 days of the receipt of the petition, shall issue an order that these payments shall be passed along to the users of the transfer station as an automatic surcharge on any tariff filed with, and recorded by, the [board] department for the solid waste disposal operations of the transfer station.
c. In issuing any order required by this section, the [Board of Public Utilities] Department of Environmental Protection shall be exempt from the provisions of R.S.48:2-21.
(cf: P.L.1991, c.381, s.40)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would increase the host community benefit for municipalities wherein solid waste transfer stations are located from fifty cents to one dollar per ton of all solid waste accepted for transfer at the transfer station during the previous calendar year.
Since these host municipalities must bear the burden of accepting the environmental and health hazards associated with processing solid waste, and the statutory minimum benefit of fifty cents per ton has not changed in seventeen years, the affected municipalities should be granted an increase to one dollar per ton to reflect the State's current economy.
