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May 7, 2009 (E-Mail Attachment from Doug Morris, Crow Wing County Waste Management Director) CROW WING COUNTY Douglas R. Morris, Waste Management Director Analysis of Waste Collection Service Arrangements (March 2009) Comments May 7, 2009 Before focusing in detail on specific issues in the draft Report, it may be useful to clarify the counties role within solid waste. Counties have been tasked by the State, to manage recycling and solid waste management programs since the 1990's under the State's Waste Management Act. Solid waste is a "must manage" product of society and environmentally sound solid waste management is an essential public service. For that reason, counties have been tasked by the State to be responsible for safely managing solid waste that is generated by residential, commercial or industrial activities, while also protecting public health and welfare. Since the 1990's counties in Greater Minnesota have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in creating the existing integrated solid waste infrastructure — WTE, sanitary and C&D landfills, transfer stations, material recovery facilities, and other solid waste related activities and facilities. One key aspect that is missing in this equation is — no matter how great a management system you have in place, it can only properly manage solid waste once it enters into the infrastructure that has been created. Comments: 1. State leadership. A key aspect that is missing from the Report is actions to be taken. The Report clearly identifies that the existing rules governing organized collection has seriously hindered counties efforts to truly establish a fully integrated solid waste system that address waste from point of generation to final disposal. This point is high lighted from past actions. From 1994 till recently, waste designation under the "Carbone" decision by the US Supreme Court significantly impacted counties on their efforts to control the waste within their own boundary. Organized collection offered a solution to address waste designation, but even facing sever fiscal repercussions almost all counties choose not to use the existing organized collection statute. According to this Report, the prevalence of open collection in Minnesota versus organized collection systems nationally appears to have an opposite trend! The Report was unable to identify any other state that had a similar statute a city or county had to follow to change from an open system to an organized system. Why place this handicap on the counties and cities within Minnesota? More important, why continue it? In the past, their has been significantly less effort spent on ensuring waste is entering the solid waste system than on managing it once it is in the system. Only through State leadership can this X:\MS\IE\2008\08M081\10000 reports\Final Appendices\Appendix I1 -Public Comments.doc 7