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June 20, 2007, Letter to Patriot News
Dear Editor:
Readers will be hard-pressed to unearth a scrap of truth in the editorial counterpoint, “Don’t add more taxes as waste fees,” offered June 19 by Tim O’Donnell, president of the Pennsylvania Waste Industries Association.
Mr. O’Donnell’s claim that the waste industry “had nothing to do” with contamination at hazardous waste sites is absurd. The 2004-05 annual report on the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund lists 10 landfills receiving site-fund expenditures, including three of more than $230,000.
Funny how landfills are continually ballyhooed as state of the art yet end up on hazardous-site cleanup and Superfund lists.
The waste industry also was party to the lawsuit that effectively ended recycling programs in many schools across the state. This is hardly the “sound public policy” the industry claims to promote.
Mr. O’Donnell’s references to profits may hold the one nugget of truth in his missive. Pennsylvania is America’s dumping ground, and the waste industry’s bottom line is its bottom line.
State Rep. Camille “Bud” George
D-74 of Clearfield County
PH: 717 787-7082
Rep. George is the majority chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.