|
Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) announced today that the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill includes report language calling on the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to immediately clarify that waste transfer facilities are subject to state and local environmental regulations.
The New Jersey congressman had introduced an amendment with U.S. Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and John Hall (D-NY) that would eliminate funding to STB for actions involving the sorting, handling or transfer of solid waste along rail lines at waste transfer stations. U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) offered a similar amendment in the Senate earlier this month that was unanimously adopted in the Senate's version of this bill.
"It is my hope that this amendment will take the STB out of the waste management business by ensuring that funding for any decisions relating to waste transfer stations be eliminated," Pallone said today on the House floor. "It is important that states and local municipalities have a say in this process."
Instead of moving the amendment, Pallone received assurances from U.S. Rep. John Olver (D-MA), Chairman of the Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee that report language has been included in the overall bill that not only calls for state and local regulation, but also states that the House Appropriations Committee disagrees with the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) interpretation of current preemption rules since the operation of solid waste facilities is not integral to transportation by rail.
Pallone also announced today that the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has agreed to hold a hearing on the Clean Railroads Act of 2007, a bill that simply fills a loophole in the law so that state and local governments can regulate solid waste transfer stations built next to interstate rail lines.
The New Jersey congressman said House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar and House Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chairman Corinne Brown informed him that they would hold a hearing on the legislation.
"I commend Chairmen Oberstar and Brown for recognizing the harmful environmental and health impacts these waste transfer stations pose," Pallone said. "A hearing will allow me the opportunity to educate more of my colleagues about this problem, and why it's important that Congress fill this loophole so we can better protect all Americans."
Earlier this month, Pallone made a formal request for the hearing in a letter to Chairman Brown. The letter was sent one day after the Surface Transportation Board (STB) ruled in a 2 to 1 opinion that local environmental regulations cannot preempt federal rules that cover railways.
In New Jersey, some waste handlers and railroad companies are exploiting a so-called loophole in federal law to set up unregulated waste transfer facilities. Under the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995, the STB has exclusive jurisdiction over "transportation by rail carriers" and the ability to grant federal preemption over other laws at any level -- local, state, or federal -- that might impede such transportation. Pallone said Congress intended such authority to extend only to transportation by rail, not to the operation of facilities that are merely sited next to rail operations.
Currently, more than a dozen railroad transfer facilities have been proposed or are now in operation in New Jersey, one of which handles hazardous waste. The state has tried repeatedly to impose regulations on the trash piles in an effort to protect those New Jerseyans who live and work near them.
Last February, Pallone introduced H.R. 1248, The Clean Railroads Act of 2007, in the U.S. House of Representatives that will ensure solid waste facilities next to rail lines fall under the same regulations as every other waste facility, which would allow New Jersey to regulate these facilities.
|
