Max Baucus: “I am happy the Senator from Indiana offered this amendment. He has been committed, including the Presiding Officer, for…”

“I am happy the Senator from Indiana offered this amendment. He has been committed, including the Presiding Officer, for many years to trying to get this passed. There has been a development which makes this legislation more imminent. Recently, the city of New York announced that it is going to close its Fresh Kills landfill. Fresh Kills landfill is probably the biggest landfill in this country. They receive 13,000 tons of garbage a day at Fresh Kills landfill in New York. That amounts to 1,200 trucks a day of garbage dumped at the Fresh Kills landfill. That is going to be closed. It will be closed in 2 years. I think it will be phased out ultimately by the year 2001. That is a problem. It is a problem for a lot of so-called importing States, States that receive other States' garbage. It is a problem because States are having a very difficult time enacting laws providing for incinerators. People do not want incinerators to burn garbage. This is a major proposal in the State of New York for the State of New York to build a major incinerator in Brooklyn. It has been turned down. It is the old not-in-my-backyard syndrome. Nobody wants an incinerator in their backyard. So incinerators are not getting anywhere, which means that New York has a problem. New York City has a big problem with Fresh Kills closed. Where is all that garbage going to be, 13,000 tons, 1,200 trucks a day? That is just an example of the problem that we face.…”