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Now they're trying to poison us!
Lawmakers in the House and Senate approved a bill Thursday that loosens restrictions on landfills, allows billboard owners to cut down more foliage around signs on interstate exit ramps, and loosens restrictions on coal ash storage facilities.House Bill 74 has 60 sections, about a dozen of which have been criticized by environmental groups, municipalities and counties, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers. It’s an amalgam of two other regulatory bills.
Rep. Chuck McGrady, a Hendersonville Republican, deplored the politics of constructing the bill, saying a section that loosens regulations on sanitary landfills was added in the dark and hadn’t been properly vetted. He tried to get the bill moved back to the House rules committee, but withdrew the request after a brief recess.
That section allows landfills to be built closer to state gamelands. It also eases rules about how landfills must maintain the systems that keep landfill liquids from getting into groundwater.Environmental advocates also were concerned about a provision that expands the area in which coal-ash-storing facilities are allowed to pollute without needing to remove the contaminants, which include arsenic, lead and mercury.
A Duke Energy ash basin in Gaston County along the Catawba River has been the centerpiece of resistance efforts because the area in which it will be allowed to pollute under the bill includes a stretch of the river.That contaminated water could reach Charlotte’s drinking water supply, said Mary Maclean Asbill, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Rep. Chuck McGrady, a Hendersonville Republican, deplored the politics of constructing the bill, saying a section that loosens regulations on sanitary landfills was added in the dark and hadn’t been properly vetted. He tried to get the bill moved back to the House rules committee, but withdrew the request after a brief recess.
That section allows landfills to be built closer to state gamelands. It also eases rules about how landfills must maintain the systems that keep landfill liquids from getting into groundwater.Environmental advocates also were concerned about a provision that expands the area in which coal-ash-storing facilities are allowed to pollute without needing to remove the contaminants, which include arsenic, lead and mercury.
A Duke Energy ash basin in Gaston County along the Catawba River has been the centerpiece of resistance efforts because the area in which it will be allowed to pollute under the bill includes a stretch of the river.That contaminated water could reach Charlotte’s drinking water supply, said Mary Maclean Asbill, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/07/25/4190926/landfill-restrictions-loosened.html#storylink=cpy
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