HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution 91-48CITY OF COLUMBIA HEIGHTS
RESOLUTION 91-48
BEING A RESOLUTION URGING CONGRESSIONAL RELIEF
FROM APPLICATION OF SUPERFUND STATUTE
WHEREAS, the City of Columbia Heights, Minnesota, strongly supports the
general concept of the Superfund 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;
WHEREAS, under the Superfund Statute, hazardous waste site polluters
acquire the right to sue fellow polluters to share the cleanup expense;
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;
WHEREAS, the Superfund Statute does not and should not focus on
municipal solid waste;
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;
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 pickup and hauling of municipal
solid waste from within their respective borders;
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;
WHEREAS, the 1976 Resource Conversation and Recovery Act and its
amendments, along with EPA's regulations hereunder, treat household wastes
according to non-hazardous solid waste standards.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of
Columbia Heights, Minnesota, to urge its congressional representatives to
support:
1} 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.
2) Empowering only the federal government to sue local governments for
cost-sharing under the Superfund Statute if such local governments
may have handled any truly hazardous waste.
3) Clearly defining that the degree of toxicity, not the volume of
waste, should be the prime factor in assessing any liabilities under
the Superfund Statute.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Manager be authorized to vigorously
pursue relief from any attempt to transfer the costs of toxic waste cleanup
from polluters to household taxpayers.
Passed this ~th day of September
· 1991
Offered By:
Seconded By:
Roll Call:
Date of Passage:
Ruettimann
Peterson
All ayes
Edward M. Carlson, Mayor
Stude'nt, Cou~c~i- Secretary