Landfill Cleanup Bill Heads to Cheyenne

What to do about cleaning up landfill sites around the state is addressed in a bill that moves to the legislature.  The Joint Minerals Interim Committee polished off language for the draft bill this week when they met in Casper.  State Representative, Tim Stubsen, sits on the Committee and he says the bill sets up the process for prioritizing cleanup of contaminated statewide sites.

"We did this process over a couple of years where they did monitoring and did some determination over whether different land fills had leaking, whether there were environmental problems associated with those, but no next step. And this is really the next step,  to say,  let's develop a system of prioritization so that we can decide which ones we're going to need to address next."

Stubsen says the question of how to fund the estimated two million plus dollars in remediation needed will likely be put off until after the legislature meets.   But, he says,  small communities will need help.   "I mean these problems are so significant, ya know, the little  towns around Wyoming aren't going to be able to handle it and address the remediation all by themselves."

Possible funding scenarios include increased tipping fees, local operator contributions,  and state funding.

The Wyoming legislature begins its General Session starting January 11th in Cheyenne.