Conyers Praises Passage of H.R. 518,
The International Solid Waste Importation and Management Act of 2007

Washington, DC - Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, made the following statement on passage of H.R. 518, The International Solid Waste Importation and Management Act of 2007:

"Today the House took an important step toward curbing the flow of Canadian trash into Michigan. H.R. 518 adds a new section to the Solid Waste Disposal Act requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to implement and enforce the "notice and consent" provisions of a bilateral US-Canadian Agreement signed in 1986 to govern the transboundary movement of hazardous waste. This Agreement was amended in 1992 to include municipal solid waste, but neither Administration since then has made any effort to implement the bilateral agreement. Enforcement legislation promised "soon" by the present Administration almost four years ago has yet to arrive. H.R. 518 provides criteria to ensure that the views of the affected State and local governments are properly taken into account, and it adds the necessary statutory enforcement authority.

"According to the most recent information for Fiscal Year 2006, the largest source of waste imported into Michigan continues to be from Canada, with total reported imports to landfills of more than 12 million cubic yards. That is a 23 percent increase from FY2003. Even more disturbing is that the amount of Canadian waste being disposed of in Michigan has risen by 335 percent since 1996, when Michigan began collecting data.

"Riverview and other downriver communities in my district have had to cope with hundreds of trucks full of Canadian trash rumbling down their streets on a daily basis for years. These trucks pass through our communities en route from the Ambassador Bridge to traffic dumps to the west. You can imagine the traffic congestion, environmental and quality-of-life problems these truckloads of trash have created.

"Local activists like Mr. George Read of Trenton and State Representative Kathleen Law have been working tirelessly alongside our Congressional delegation to put an end to this never-ending flow of trash, and I am very pleased that the House today is taking a step toward that goal."

###04-24-2007###