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Show Commercial refuse dropped By PAUL CHALLIS , News Editor BOUNTIFUL The City Council voted to delete an "unpopular" proposed program to collect commercial commer-cial refuse within the city limits of Bountiful from its 1991-92 fiscal budget Wednesday night. The purchase of 420 containers, the hiring of one additional ad-ditional full-time person and a new front-end loader for the refuse collection program would have cost the city about $317,000. City Manager Tom Hardy made the recommendation to the council that the controversial program be eliminated elim-inated from the fiscal budget and that the governing body draw up a solid waste ordinance to better enforce the dumping of hazardous waste in the Bountiful landfill. land-fill. Hardy told the council that deleting the program would not have any effect on the total budget as funding fun-ding would have come from capital improvements and would not have started if included in the budget until Jan. 1,1992. "We only added the commercial refuse collection program to protect our landfill and to stop potential environmental en-vironmental problems," Hardy said. He added that Bountiful had been monitoring the landfill and discovered small amounts of toxic material in the dump and ground water. "We want to control hazardous waste from being dumped in our landfill." Hardy said eight commercial haulers and one from the Davis County School District have been charged fees to dispose refuse in the Bountiful landfill. "We just want to control what we are responsible for," he added. Since the plan to take over the commercial hauling was announced in May, several of the haulers have contacted con-tacted the city and asked to remain part of the process and not have the city handle the commercial trash in Bountiful. Hardy also indicated that city employees have been checking dumpsters and have found items that qualify as hazardous waste on the EPA's list. "Service stations have been dumping used oil filters into dumpsters with about a half a pint of oil still in them," Hardy said. "If 200 filters are disposed each day for 300 days, that is 60,000 filters making 30,000 quarts of oil in a year. ' Councilwoman Barbara Holt supported Hardy's recommendation rec-ommendation to set up a licensing program and an ordinance or-dinance controlling commercial dumping at the city's landfill. "I would like to see the commercial haulers come in as partners with the city on making the ordinance a reality," real-ity," Holt said. She added that she had five suggestions for the city to adopt as regulations. j First, spot checks on city and commercial haulers bringing br-inging refuse to the landfill; second, the city should provide hazardous waste pick-up for residents; third, hazardous pick-up sites for residents in Bountiful; fourth, four-th, form a List for residents of what substances qualify as hazardous waste; fifth, have necessary funds removed remov-ed from the reserve fund for the new hazardous waster program. Councilman Leslie Foy gave his support for the program pro-gram adding, "The city needs to provide temporary sites for hazardous waste dumping for our citizens. ' ' "We need to send a message to the commercial haulers that using our landfill is a privilege, not a right," Hardy added. Holt made the motion to create a hazardous waste program for haulers and added that the companies take part in establishing the program to be overseen by Bountiful. The motion also deleted the city's involvement in-volvement in a commercial refuse system from the fiscal budget. Foy seconded the motion and it was OK'd by 4-0 vote. Councilman Robert Gramoll was absent ab-sent from the meeting. |