By Danielle Shrager, USCM Intern
October 22, 2007

The House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, chaired by Representative Corrine Brown (FL), held a hearing October 16 on Railroad Owned Solid Waste Transload Facilities. The focus of the hearing was trash facilities that are operating as railroads and are unfairly shielding themselves from state and local environmental laws by using federal preemption standards as applied to railroads. Other solid waste facilities must comply with the state and local regulations, which creates an unfair advantage to those facilities as well as creating potential environmental and health hazards of dumping unregulated waste.

At the hearing, Bensalem (PA) Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo, Croton-on-Hudson (NY) Mayor Gregory Schmidt, and Mullica Township (NJ) Mayor Kathy Chasey urged Congress to support H.R. 1248, the Clean Railroads Act, as introduced by Representative Frank Pallone (NJ), which would remove the Surface Transportation Board’s jurisdiction over solid waste disposal.

In his testimony, DiGirolamo said that despite never having been approved by Bensalem Township and after years of redevelopment, the Township now faces the possible construction of a trash facility along its Delaware River Waterfront.

The federal preemption standards for railroads were traditionally used so as not to create a “patchwork” of state and local regulations that would interfere with interstate commerce. However, facilities are now using this “loophole” by operating as railroad facilities, and thus avoiding the regulations applied to the rest of the solid waste industry. The use of this loophole results in the piling of unregulated waste along these sites without any environmental or health standards. Federal preemption was given under the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination (ICCTA) Act of 1995, and exclusive jurisdiction was given to Surface Transportation Board, which only minimally regulates these railroads. Along with Committee Chairman James Oberstar (MN) and other witnesses at the hearing, DiGirolamo believes that the current use of the preemption for waste facilities to avoid regulations was not what Congress had intended.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted resolutions at its 73rd Annual Meeting last June, which supports the nation’s cities’ legal rights to review and approve solid waste management facilities within their jurisdiction. In the resolution, the Conference of Mayors wants to amend the Interstate Commerce Act to clarify that rail-based solid waste facilities are not integral to the operation of railroads and that the federal preemption does not apply to these solid waste facilities, and that Congress enact legislation to fully restore state and local control of rail based solid waste facilities to states and local governments in recognition of the local laws governing such solid waste facilities.