Washington County Commissioners passed a resolution to receive hazardous waste trust fund reimbursements from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division during their December meeting.
County Administrator Dustin Peebles explained prior to the Commissioners’ vote regarding the resolution that the Environmental Protection Division recently approved the County’s application to receive $22,672.05 from the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund.
According to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, the Hazardous Site Response Act (Act), which was enacted in 1993, authorizes the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to clean up hazardous sites that threaten human health and the environment. This law enables EPD to use the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund (HWTF) for hazardous site assessment, remediation, and monitoring, local government landfill reimbursements, and abandoned site cleanups. The HWTF is funded by fees collected from industry and government agencies that produce, manage, and dispose of solid wastes and hazardous wastes, and from fines collected from violators of certain environmental laws. Most of the funding comes from the $0.75 per ton tipping fee on waste disposed at landfills throughout the State. The hazardous waste/substance fees are assessed based on the volume an entity generates and/or releases.
In a letter addressed to Chairman Horace Daniel, the Environmental Protection Division explained that the County requested reimbursement from the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund for costs spent investigating and cleaning the County’s landfill.
“We cleaned and did the things we needed to do to satisfy the EPD’s requirements,” said County Administrator Peebles.
During the December Commissioners’ meeting, County Administrator Peebles explained that the resolution was required in order for the EPD to release the funds to the County. Commissioner Frank Simmons moved to pass the resolution; Commissioner Doug Watkins seconded, and the vote carried unanimously.