COLUMBUS — Forty years after the Cuyahoga River caught fire the last time, environmentalists sounded the warning bell on Monday, June 22, by pleading with state leaders to boost landfill fees rather than put clean air and water programs at risk.
Gov. Ted Strickland proposed boosting municipal waste dumping fees to $4.75 per ton, up from the current $3.50 per ton, and construction waste dumping fees to $4.40 per ton, up from $1.70 per ton. The increases would help pay for Ohio Environmental Protection Agency programs.
But the GOP-controlled Senate stripped the fee increases out of the budget. State Sen. Keith Faber, R-Celina, said he views the fee increases as hidden tax hikes because landfill fees shouldn’t bear the burden funding EPA’s general programs.
“The EPA is a fee-based entity. They should have to tighten their belts like everybody else. Not just ask for more fees,” Faber said.
But Ohio Environmental Council Deputy Director Jack Shaner warned that without the fee increases, the progress made since Cleveland’s burning river days could be in peril.
“Ohio’s dire state budget outlook could put that steady progress for environmental clean up and natural resource conservation at risk,” Shaner said.
The Ohio EPA said without the fee increases the agency “will not be able to ensure compliance with drinking water regulations and more drinking water systems will face enforcement, many of which will be referred to U.S. EPA for enforcement. Ohioans will not have the same assurances of receiving safe drinking water.”
The state budget bill is pending before a House-Senate conference committee, which is trying to hammer out differences and come up with a balanced budget by July 1 when the new fiscal year begins.
Without the fee increases, Ohio EPA will have to cut dozens of staff who currently monitor air and water quality, assist small wastewater treatment plant operators, and help prevent pollution discharges into the air and water, the agency said.
The environmentalists aren’t alone in complaining about the state budget.
Nursing home operators are protesting proposed cuts in their Medicaid reimbursement rates as well as increased fees. Drug and alcohol abuse programs are sounding the alarm about what a proposed 28 percent cut in state funding would mean. And advocates for mentally ill Ohioans are concerned about a proposed 34 percent cut in state funding for community-based mental health programs.
Staff writer William Hershey contributed to this report.
