§2158. Sanitary landfills; regional establishment; planning

A.(1) The department shall, in cooperation with parish and municipal governing authorities, develop a plan for the orderly establishment of regional sanitary landfills.

(2) Such plan shall be based on consideration of the following:

(a) Regional need for solid waste disposal.

(b) Available sites which will minimize hazards to the environment and which are consistent with the overall plan established pursuant to R.S. 30:2154(A)(1), including preventing the contamination of groundwater through migration. For any permit application filed after July 1, 2003, for a new sanitary landfill site, or for an expansion of an existing landfill site, such migration may be prevented through the use of innovative technologies. The department shall consider the use of innovative technologies such as horizontally or vertically positioned high density polyethylene or any other synthetic material that is as chemically resistant and that is as impermeable for preventing contamination of groundwater.

(c) Ability of those who would be served by such regional sites to finance and manage such facilities.

(d) Minimizing the amount of waste which cannot be recycled.

(e) The concerns of local governments, private industry, and environmental groups.

(f) The potential for eliminating the proliferation of alternate sites by the establishment of such a regional system.

(g) Ensuring adequate competition within any region developed or implemented pursuant to such plan.

(3) The secretary shall develop and adopt certain siting criteria for regional commercial solid waste disposal facilities by rules and regulations by January 1, 1991.

(4) A notice of any expansion of the areas to be serviced by a regional sanitary landfill shall be given to the local governing authority of the parish in which the landfill is located by the secretary. Upon request by the local governing authority, a public hearing shall be held to review the appropriateness of such changes.

B. The plan required by this Section shall be prepared and submitted to the natural resource committees of the Senate and House of Representatives for their review and input no later than March 15, 1991.

Acts 1990, No. 1001, §1; Acts 1997, No. 27, §1; Acts 1999, No. 303, §1, eff. June 14, 1999; Acts 2001, No. 524, §1; Acts 2003, No. 280, §1.