§22-27-40. Legislative findings.

The Legislature finds that:

(1) The state, its subdivisions and the nation face an emerging crisis in solid waste management;

(2) Proper waste management is an increasingly complex issue involving the need for reducing the volumes of waste requiring disposal, properly managing wastes to reduce the likelihood of both short-term and long-term threat to human health and the environment, and assuring that adequate, environmentally secure, waste management and disposal facilities will be available at reasonable costs to accommodate wastes generated in the state;

(3) Provision for necessary systems, facilities, technology and services for solid waste management and resource recovery is a matter of important public interest and concern, and action taken in this regard will be for a public purpose and will benefit the public welfare;

(4) Solid waste management problems are potentially statewide in scope and necessitate state and local action through the development and implementation of comprehensive long-range plans for solid waste management which recognize the conditions in the state now and those which can be expected in the foreseeable future, and which serve to assure that the state as a whole and local jurisdictions in particular will meet their long-term solid waste management needs;

(5) Proper planning for solid waste management must include the evaluation of facility sites based on a broad group of factors including, but not limited to, environmental conditions, local needs for waste management, social and economic impacts on the host community, the availability and impact on public services, and the consistency of a proposed facility with any final solid waste management plan;

(6) Proper solid waste management planning also should provide leadership in the application of new and improved methods and processes to reduce the amount of solid waste that must be disposed of and to promote environmentally acceptable and economically sound solid waste management;

(7) The failure or inability to economically recover and recycle materials and energy resources from solid waste results in the unnecessary waste and depletion of natural resources;

(8) The landfill disposal of solid waste, even under the most ideal conditions, has the potential to create long-term pollution and environmental degradation;

(9) Current conditions and pending federal regulatory requirements likely will increase the costs of landfill disposal, prompt the closure of many landfills in the state and likely change the methods of solid waste management in the state away from the present system of management by individual cities and counties and toward the development of larger facilities which must be capable of meeting the needs of several jurisdictions. Given this evolving situation, the Legislature concludes that a concerted solid waste management planning program is essential to address the imminent and future needs of the state;

(10) The absence of comprehensive planning will result in the random, haphazard siting of waste disposal services without relation to the actual needs of particular localities in the state, and therefore, to assure that the comprehensive planning required herein is most effective, the permitting of new facilities and the modification of permits for existing facilities should occur only after the comprehensive plans are in place. In the interim new permits or modifications should be issued only to prevent human health or environmental threats in the particular jurisdiction in the state to be served by the facility;

(11) Publicly owned solid waste management facilities are public resources of limited and finite capacity which the state, as guardian and trustee for its people, has the right and the obligation to preserve for the present and future use of its people; and

(12) The state or local governments, by creating and operating solid waste management facilities are participants in the solid waste facility services market and have entered that market for the purpose of serving the citizens of this state.

(Acts 1989, No. 89-824, p. 1638, §1.)