[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 81 (Tuesday, May 16, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S6712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


         INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE ACT

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, we have now reached a point where the 
Senate is about to give our small towns the right to say no. I hope the 
House will follow suit quickly so that we can send the bill to the 
President this year.
  We have debated this bill extensively. We have heard a lot of 
statistics. We have heard a lot about policy. So I would like to use a 
small example to remind the Senate of why this is so important.
  Miles City, MT, is a small prairie town of 8,500 people on the 
Yellowstone River. Not too long ago, its people faced the prospect of 
what was probably a Noah's flood of garbage imports. A garbage 
entrepreneur from Minneapolis came out to look them over. He had a 
rather remarkable plan: Empty coal trains run out of Minneapolis. Each 
one of them has about 110 cars--open-roofed cars, 50 feet long, 10 feet 
wide, 11 feet high. He wanted to fill them to the brim with garbage and 
bring all that garbage to Miles City and dump it in Miles City. Think 
of it. A giant garbage snake over a mile long ripening in the sun for 
anywhere up to 5 days on the run out of Minneapolis, shedding rotten 
food, broken glass, and used diapers into the Yellowstone River at 
every bend in the track, steaming into town on a hot summer day with as 
much trash in one single trip as Miles City throws out in a whole year.
  It is crazy; it is humiliating; and Miles City should have the right 
to say no. So far, the people of Miles City and their representatives 
in the Montana Legislature have been able to stop these plans. But, 
with no disrespect to the legislature, it is a weak reed.
  Every time waste companies have challenged State laws restricting 
out-of-State waste, the State laws have been overturned by the courts. 
So we cannot rely on State legislatures. We need a Federal law. Without 
congressional action, according to the Supreme Court, neither the 
people of Montana nor of any other State can stop these garbage trains.
  Some interstate movement of garbage makes sense. In Montana, two 
towns have made arrangements to share landfills with western North 
Dakota towns and some trash from Wyoming areas of Yellowstone Park is 
disposed in Montana. These arrangements save money for the communities 
involved and shared regional landfills can be a policy that makes 
sense. But it only makes sense when the communities involved agree to 
it. No place should become an unwilling dumping ground. Nobody should 
have to take garbage they do not want from another community-- not 
Miles City, not anybody.
  This bill is a very good start, and I strongly support it. But like 
any other bill, it is not perfect. In particular, I am concerned that 
it would allow waste to be imported until a community gets wise to it 
and has to say no.
  I believe we should take a good-neighbor approach. Waste from big 
cities should not be allowed into our communities until the people 
agree to accept it. I do not want the people of Miles City to wake up 
one morning with a garbage train in the station. I want the garbage 
broker to come to town first and ask the people's permission before 
using the community as a trash dump. That is just common courtesy.
  I hope we can move in that direction as the bill goes ahead, and for 
now I urge the Senate's support for this critical new law.
  Finally, Mr. President, I wish to congratulate the Senators who have 
worked so very hard over the years in finally developing a balanced 
bill. Senator Coats from Indiana has been a bulldog, and Senators 
Lautenberg and Smith, and our new chairman, Senator Chafee, have worked 
tirelessly. Brokering the agreements that brought the bill to this 
point was not easy, but they met the challenge.
  In closing, let us stand up for small towns and give them the right 
to protect their people from unwanted trash.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  

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