Camille George (Democrat) Clearfield County Occupation: Legislator Education: Houtzdale High School, 1944; American School, Chicago Member of the House: 1975 to date Standing Committee Assignments: • Committee on Committees • Environmental Resources and Energy (Chairman) • Rules Personal History: Married to Edna Mae Contact Information: Hon. Camille George 275 Spring Street Houtzdale, PA 16651 (814) 378-6279 Fax: (814) 765-0609 Hon. Camille George 38B East Wing Harrisburg, PA 17120 (717) 787-7316 Fax: (717) 783-8236

Three-Year Freeze On Landfill / Incinerator Permits Needed Now Camille "Bud" George By: Rep. Camille George (D-Clearfield) As the Democratic chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, I have called for the swift adoption of legislation that would freeze new landfill and incinerator permits to end Pennsylvania's reign as America's Dumping Ground. We may not be able to restrict trash imports, but we don't have to keep rolling out the red carpet every year and invite more waste companies to trash Pennsylvania.  We must stop the siege on our Commonwealth by a waste industry that sees communities only as garbage gateways to huge corporate profits. My landfill moratorium bill, HB326, would: Halt permitting for three years of all new landfills and incinerators, and their expansions, unless a need for additional capacity is proven. Rescind average or maximum daily trash volumes that already have given Pennsylvania enough landfill capacity for the next 11 years. Provide local control, enabling communities to deny permits unless the need for disposal capacity is proven. Advertise proposed host-community agreements and make them available to the public at least 60 days before adoption. Prohibit landfills within 2,500 feet of a state park. Make landfills presumed liable for pollution or reduction of water supplies. Provide $5 million a year in grants to communities significantly increasing their recycling efforts. If Pennsylvania's communities are sick of playing the patsy to landfill developers, HB326.  It's time to hold our elected leaders feet to the fire and end Pennsylvania's open-door policy toward the waste industry. Citizens have to stop being bamboozled by lawmakers who claim Pennsylvania is powerless to slow the 10 million tons of out-of-state trash being sent to the Commonwealth because federal interstate commerce laws forbid restrictions on imported garbage. All states are governed by the same federal laws, yet Pennsylvania accepts almost twice as much trash as any other state.  State policies -- not federal -- make Pennsylvania the land of landfills and incinerators, and HB326 will put the brakes on the waste industry. Communities facing new landfills and incinerators, or their expansions, include: Boggs Township, Clearfield County, where approval of a host-community agreement for 5,000-ton-a-day municipal waste landfill was not made public knowledge until almost four months after it was signed. Rush Township, Centre County, where a 5,000-ton-a-day landfill has been proposed for less than 20 miles away from a similar-sized, municipal waste landfill. Blythe Township, Schuylkill County, for a construction-and-debris landfill. Plainfield Township, Northampton County, for a 43-acre expansion of the Grand Central Sanitary Landfill. New Morgan Borough, Berks County, for a 133-acre expansion of the Conestoga Landfill. Pine and Liberty townships, Mercer County, for reopening and vertical expansion of the Tri-County Landfill. Washington and Upper Paxton townships, Dauphin County, for reopening and expansion of the Dauphin Meadows Landfill. Farmington Township, Clarion County, for an anticipated proposed expansion of the County Landfill. At least 15 landfills in 13 counties have been approved for expansions in size or capacity in the last five years, and proposals for new landfills are flooding the Commonwealth, where about 25 million tons of trash are dumped or burned in Pennsylvania each year. I credit the Rendell administration for holding landfills to tougher criteria, resulting in more permit denials and trash imports falling for two consecutive years.  However, Pennsylvania's permissive waste policies and landfill capacities are still to blame for the obscene amount of trash entering the state. Landfills and incinerators are huge money-makers for a select few and colossal headaches for the tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who are their reluctant neighbors.  We have a responsibility to dispose of trash responsibly, but no mandate to be the trash capital of America. Pennsylvania is too precious to go to waste!  I urge citizens to make sure their local state representatives and senators support HB326. ### CapNews Guest Speaker: Archives Back to CapNews