455B.310 Tonnage fee imposed — appropriations — exemptions.

1. Except as provided in subsection 5, the operator of a sanitary landfill shall pay a tonnage fee to the department for each ton or equivalent volume of solid waste received and disposed of at the sanitary landfill during the preceding reporting period. The department shall determine by rule the volume which is equivalent to a ton of waste.

2. The tonnage fee is four dollars and twenty-five cents per ton of solid waste, except as provided in section 455J.5, subsection 1, paragraph “b”.

3. If a sanitary landfill required to pay a tonnage fee under this section has an updated comprehensive plan approved by the department, the sanitary landfill operator shall retain, in addition to the ninety-five cents retained pursuant to subsection 4, twenty-five cents of the tonnage fee per ton of solid waste in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1998, and every year thereafter. In the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1999, and every year thereafter, any planning area which meets the statewide average, as determined by the department on July 1, 1999, shall retain, in addition to the twenty-five cents retained pursuant to this subsection, ten cents of the tonnage fee per ton of solid waste regardless of whether the planning area subsequently fails to meet the statewide average. Any tonnage fees retained pursuant to this subsection shall be used for waste reduction, recycling, or small business pollution prevention purposes. Any tonnage fee retained pursuant to this subsection shall be taken from that portion of the tonnage fee which would have been allocated to funding alternatives to landfills pursuant to section 455E.11, subsection 2, paragraph “a”, subparagraph (1).

4. If a planning area achieves the fifty percent waste reduction goal provided in section 455D.3, ninety-five cents of the tonnage fee shall be retained by a city, county, or public or private agency. If the fifty percent waste reduction goal has not been met, one dollar and twenty cents of the tonnage fee shall be retained by a city, county, or public or private agency. Moneys retained by a city, county, or public or private agency shall be used as follows:

a. To meet comprehensive planning requirements of section 455B.306, the development of a closure or postclosure plan, the development of a plan for the control and treatment of leachate including the preparation of facility plans and detailed plans and specifications, and the preparation of a financial plan.

b. If a planning area achieves the fifty percent waste reduction goal provided in section 455D.3, forty-five cents of the retained funds shall be used for implementing waste volume reduction and recycling requirements of comprehensive plans filed under section 455B.306. If the fifty percent waste reduction goal has not been met, seventy cents of the retained funds shall be used for implementing waste volume reduction and recycling requirements of comprehensive plans filed under section 455B.306. The funds shall be distributed to a city, county, or public agency served by the sanitary disposal project. Fees collected by a private agency which provides for the final disposal of solid waste shall be remitted to the city, county, or public agency served by the sanitary disposal project. However, if a private agency is designated to develop and implement the comprehensive plan pursuant to section 455B.306, fees under this paragraph shall be retained by the private agency.

c. For other environmental protection activities.

d. Each sanitary landfill owner or operator shall submit a return to the department identifying the use of all fees retained under this section including the manner in which the fees were distributed. A planning area entering into an agreement pursuant to section 455B.306, subsection 2, shall submit such information to the department and a planning area receiving the solid waste under such an agreement shall, in addition, submit evidence to the department demonstrating that required retained fees were returned in a timely manner to other planning areas under the agreement. The return shall be submitted concurrently with the return required under subsection 7.

5. Solid waste disposal facilities with special provisions which limit the site to disposal of construction and demolition waste, landscape waste, coal combustion waste, cement kiln dust, foundry sand, and solid waste materials approved by the department for lining or capping, or for construction berms, dikes, or roads in a sanitary disposal project or sanitary landfill are exempt from the tonnage fees imposed under this section. However, solid waste disposal facilities under this subsection are subject to the fees imposed pursuant to section 455B.105, subsection 11, paragraph “a”. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 455B.105, subsection 11, paragraph “b”, the fees collected pursuant to this subsection shall be deposited in the solid waste account as established in section 455E.11, subsection 2, paragraph “a”, to be used by the department for the regulation of these solid waste disposal facilities.

6. All tonnage fees received by the department under this section shall be deposited in the solid waste account of the groundwater protection fund created under section 455E.11.

7. Fees imposed by this section shall be paid to the department on a quarterly basis with payment due by no more than ninety days following the quarter during which the fees were collected. The payment shall be accompanied by a return which shall identify the amount of fees to be allocated to the landfill alternative financial assistance program, the amount of fees, in terms of cents per ton, retained for meeting waste reduction and recycling goals under section 455D.3, and additional fees imposed for failure to meet the twenty-five percent waste reduction and recycling goal under section 455D.3. Sanitary landfills serving more than one planning area shall submit separate reports for each planning area.

8. A person required to pay fees by this section who fails or refuses to pay the fees imposed by this section or who fails or refuses to provide the return required by this section shall be assessed a penalty of two percent of the fee due for each month the fee or return is overdue. The penalty shall be paid in addition to the fee due.

9. Foundry sand used by a sanitary landfill as daily cover, road base, or berm material or for other purposes defined as beneficial uses by rule of the department is exempt from imposition of the tonnage fee under this section. Sanitary landfills shall use foundry sand as a replacement for earthen material, if the foundry sand is generated by a foundry located within the state and if the foundry sand is provided to the sanitary landfill at no cost to the sanitary landfill.

85 Acts, ch 241, §4; 86 Acts, ch 1175, §5; 87 Acts, ch 225, §416 – 418; 88 Acts, ch 1169, §6 – 8; 90 Acts, ch 1070, §1; 91 Acts, ch 257, §2 – 5; 92 Acts, ch 1215, §11, 12; 92 Acts, ch 1239, §47; 92 Acts, ch 1244, §44; 93 Acts, ch 176, §45; 95 Acts, ch 80, §1; 98 Acts, ch 1018, §1; 98 Acts, ch 1193, §2; 2001 Acts, ch 124, §1, 6; 2005 Acts, ch 31, §5, 6; 2008 Acts, ch 1109, §1

Referred to in §455B.304, 455B.306, 455D.3, 455E.11, 455J.5