Show The Herald Journal Logan Utah Sunday January 12 2003 —All Maifua fafoTtctS) WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration issued guidelines that could in die loss of federal protection for up to 20 million acres of swamps and bogs a move officials said is neces- sary to comply with a Supreme Court ruling two protections should not be ' ' years ago Administration officials also took steps to possibly redefine what bodies of water should be protected under the Clean Water Act following the Janu- ary 2001 ruling that cast doubt on protections for millions of acres of wetlands unconnected to larger waters Environmentalists said the actions go beyond the court ruling to adopt industry approaches toward weakening the act but EPA officials dis- agreed The Environmental Protection Agency and the US Army Corps of Engineers on Friday updated a previous regulatory guidance letter pro- viding instructions to regional offices on how to interpret the ruling The update removed safeguarding migratory birds as a legal reason to protect an isolated wetland that is non- navigable and contained with- in a single state The Supreme Court had found that Clean Water Act - i Trash Continued from A 1 i i I Logan's Environmental Divi- - sion "We’re looking for more information and cost analysis so we can compare cost-wis- e to an site" Landfill capacity in Logan is expected to he exhausted in 15 to 20 years The advisory committee has been evaluating three potential sites in Cache County for a solid waste landfill: a site near Cache Junction a site between Newton and C'lark-sto- n and a site north of Clark-- I ston Of (he three options two would require shipping the waste hy rail The KCDC site is in Carbon County 15 miles east of Price The site located on 2400 acres is one of the largest landfills in the country handling waste from 40 states and N lasting a 3(X)-yerail-serv- ar capacity “We am the largest landfill in the state of Utah" said Richard McMullin accounts manager for LCDC Environmental Weber Salt Lake and Utah counties ship their waste hy rail to the ECDC facility from transfer stations Those counsituation ties were in as Cache with growing populations and decreasing space at the landfill Most communities along the Wasatch Front have about 25 years left in their landfills McMullin said Salt Lake County built a transfer station capable of handling 3000 tons of trash The county ships about 800 tons a day through the transfer station to ECDC ‘They wanted to preserve the life of their remaining facility and extend it and also prepare themselves to transi- tion into the future" McMullin said “It put about another eight years of life on extended to such isolated ponds and mudflats based solely on providing habitat for migratory birds TTiat ruling overturning an Army Corps decision to block landfill from a Chicago-are- a created being essentially allowed developers to do what they want with isolated wet- lands in areas where no state laws applied Before the nil- ing anyone who wanted to fill an isolated wetland had to apply for an Army Corps per- mit EPA officials estimate up to one-fifor 20 million of the nation’s remaining 100 mil- lion acres of wetlands are con- sidered isolated Regional offices also were formally instructed to seek guidance from Washington headquarters when deciding whether to protect any other small bodies of water that are isolated confined to one state and considered That could encompass lakes rivers streams mud- flats sandflats wetlands sloughs prairie potholes wet meadows playa lakes and nat- ural ponds EPA officials rejecting environmentalists’ criticism said the agencies' decision th non-naviga- their landfill immediately just by shipping the volume" McMullin said Cache County has the rail infrastructure in place and could byild a transfer station for around $2 to $4 million “It's an easy thing to add on" McMullin said Trash is regularly shipped on rail lines through Logan from Pocatello he said Hauling the county's waste to the ECDC site would cost somewhere in the lower $30-per-t- range Waste could also be hauled by rail to a proposed Promontory landfill The landfill is located 70 miles from Cache County in Box Elder County on 1000 acres with another 2CKK) in reserve and an option lor 20000 more Investors are in the process of obtaining the necessary permits from (he Utah Department of Environmental Quality When fully permitted the landfill has an capacity and as much as 2(X) years if the extra acreage come online “We can take all the garbage from Utah's nine northern counties over the next 2CX) years" said Dave Spatafore a KO-ye- ar municipal government lobbyist Spatafore said the Promontory landfill would be able to resolve the county's garbage needs for generations to come and expects to start receiving solid waste by the end of 2003 Mark Easton of Pacific West LLC said their goal is to create a regional landfill fur northern Utah The landfill would be owned by participating cities and counties through an interlocal agreement with each having a vote on a board of directors and a say in the landfill operations The facility could take waste by rail or truck “If a transfer station isn’t the choice of the county we certainly could accept it by truck” Easton said " simply implemented the Supreme Court ruling EPA lt Administrator Christie man said in a statement that the new guidelines “reaffirm federal authority” over many wetlands and that her agency was committed to protecting them “to the full extent under the Clean Water Act and the recent Supreme Court ruling” Environmentalists said the agencies went beyond the couit'ruling by eliminating additional reasons fur protect-ing isolated wetlands such as their use in irrigating crops for interstate commerce or har-boring threatened or endari- gered species EPA officials said those additional reasons already were rejected by the court EPA and the Army Corps also took the first step Friday in a lengthy ing process that could change the scope of waters protected by the Clean Water Act They called for of protections for these isolated wetlands confined to one state and not used for navigation Republicans including Rep Doug Ose of California andt Shetwood Boehlert of New York praised the agencies' action as a step toward clarify- ing uncertainty for developers and regulators Whit-resu- nile-ma- The Next Stage k- Easton said he expects rates would be somewhere in the range The third option is to ship waste to the Box Elder County landfill The facility is located 15 miles south of Tremonton on 115 acres Roger Harder director for Solid Waste for Box Elder County said the landfill handles around (X) to 1 20 tons a $20-per-t- Flexibility the smart way to prepare for all of life's stages 1 day “At that rate we have a landfill life of 70-plyears" Harder said That capacity would be reduced to 20 years if Cache decides to send its waste although the county has a lease for another I (XX) acres which would give it capacity for 150 to 200 years Harder said the Box Elder landfill would he a good fit for Cache County because they are close and are already operating and have the permits “Logan and Cache would save many millions of dollars in acquisition permitting and construction costs by using our landfill" Harder said "Our landfill is about 36 miles from your current landfill in ’Logan” Box Elder currently charges $25 a ton but Harder said the rates would go down depending on how much the county ships “The more waste we can bring lessens our costs" Harder said “So we feel it’s a win-wi- n situation for Box Elder County I think we're a viable option for Cache County if they choose to go in that Home Equity Line of Credit-R- I iMiitift ifrfl fiH ates as low as : (5H92ISP & mam 449 (Oil APR s 3 3 4&IP tEBP Iffip 13S) 0 fflrasbisfo 4EBPM& 1U gvia rtCEEyroSEEk3tiflDt!DB J direction" Hamud said the county is waiting for the results of a survey to determine what residents are willing to pay “We could end up contracting any of the three or we could end up having a landfill at any of the three sites here” Hamud said 52fiA tM )c eJ&si' jt deficit puts idle “men money and materials to work” Wells Fargo Senior Capital Region Management Director Sterling Continued from A3 To that end Ecclcs said he supports the recent shift in fiscal policy from surplus to deficit spending and he actually anticipates a federal budget shortfall of $300 billion to $400 billion this year Defense spending tax modifications and continuing federal spending that offsets reduced state spending will be important to picking up where the Fed leaves off Eccles said Eccles quoted his uncle Marriner Eccles who headed up the Federal Reserve under President Franklin D Roosevelt The former Eccles explained that operating on a l ’ Jenson agreed that deficit spending will augment the Fed’s efforts As the nation enters 2003 economic policies are fully stimulative Jenson said Those fiscal policies along with a stock market that is ripe for investors make Jenson optimistic about the coming year Contrary to the perception that permeates the market the coming year really doesn’t pose very much risk to investors he said Consumers perceive considerable risk in the markets with the recent corporate scandals of Enron and WorldCom along with record consumer debt loads and the threat of war But per ceived risk does not translate into real risk Jenson said “Seldom do we recall when risks were so evident persistent and widespread We believe risk was truly high a couple years ago when no one focused on risk” Jenson said ‘Today with risk everywhere we believe tlic reality is that risk for the economy and the stock market is actually low and potential reward is probably quite high" Before during the boom no one took action to prepare for bad results But now economic agents are “hunkered down for the worst” Perceptions of risk have caused people to address many economic problems and future risk is actually very low he 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