As North Hempstead Town explores strategies to manage municipal solid waste beyond 2010 when existing agreements run out, Supervisor Jon Kaiman is preparing to take greater control of solid waste processing in the town through flow control.
Under the law, which will be voted on at the June 17 town board meeting, all residential and commercial solid waste collected in the town must be brought to the town-owned and operated transfer station in Port Washington. Carters will be charged a yet-to-be-determined, per-ton tipping fee. If passed, it will become effective when the town's current contract with Winters Bros. expires on April 30, 2010.
This will have major implications for North Hempstead, the first municipality on Long Island to reinstate the law, although all other municipalities with municipal waste disposal facilities are eligible to reinstate flow control as well.
For one, it will generate revenues that will be used to help offset the costs of operating the transfer station. But most importantly, the flow control ordinance will give the town greater waste disposal oversight and the ability to prevent problems like the illegal dumping of solid waste and recyclables, Kaiman said.
It also promises to enhance recycling efforts through the establishment of a comprehensive recycling program the town has embarked on.
Flow control allows state and local governments to designate where and when municipal solid waste is transported for disposal. In North Hempstead's case, the law will require all local villages, schools and businesses to be part of the same town-operated system.
In 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local flow control laws unconstitutionally infringed on interstate commerce.
That created crippling budget headaches for North Hempstead as well as other municipalities that bonded tens of millions of dollars to build a solid waste infrastructure on the premise that flow control revenues would be there to pay back the loans.
But in 2007, the Supreme Court reversed the 1994 ruling, opening the door for municipalities like North Hempstead to once again control the flow of garbage within their borders.
