I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 70 
To authorize States to regulate the receipt and disposal of out-of-State 
municipal solid waste. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 4, 2005 
Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To authorize States to regulate the receipt and disposal 
of out-of-State municipal solid waste. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘State Waste Empower-
ment and Enforcement Provision Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. AUTHORITY TO REGULATE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of the Solid Waste Dis-
posal Act (42 U.S.C. 6941 et seq.) is amended by adding 
after section 4010 the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 4011. RECEIPT AND DISPOSAL OF OUT-OF-STATE MU-
NICIPAL SOLID WASTE. 
‘‘(a) AUTHORITY OF STATE TO RESTRICT OUT-OF- 
STATE MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE.—A State may limit or 
place restrictions on, or otherwise regulate, out-of-State 
municipal solid waste received or disposed of annually at 
each landfill or incinerator in the State, except as provided 
in subsection (b). In limiting, restricting, or regulating 
out-of-State municipal solid waste under this section, a 
State’s powers include, but are not limited to— 
‘‘(1) assessing different fees for the receipt or 
disposal of out-of-State municipal solid waste from 
those assessed for municipal solid waste from inside 
the State; 
‘‘(2) requiring local referenda on the establish-
ment of landfills and construction of incinerators in-
tended for receipt or disposal of out-of-State munic-
ipal solid waste; 
‘‘(3) considering local need for disposal capacity 
when making permitting and expansion decisions; 
‘‘(4) limiting the receipt of out-of-State munic-
ipal solid waste to a percentage of a landfill’s or in-
cinerator’s capacity; 
‘‘(5) freezing the levels of out-of-State munic-
ipal solid waste receipt or disposal at particular cal-
endar year levels or percentages of calendar year lev-
els; 
‘‘(6) requiring companies to publicly disclose in-
formation about previous health and safety viola-
tions before opening new landfills or incinerators; 
‘‘(7) regulating and restricting modes of trans-
portation for out-of-State municipal solid waste; and 
‘‘(8) requiring inspectors at landfills, inciner-
ators, and transfer stations that accept out-of-State 
municipal solid waste. 
‘‘(b) EXCEPTION.—A State may not, until after the 
expiration of 2 years after the date of the enactment of 
this section, limit, restrict, or regulate out-of-State munic-
ipal solid waste received or disposed of annually at a land-
fill or incinerator in the State under subsection (a) to the 
extent that a host community agreement specifically au-
thorizes the receipt of such waste. 
‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 
‘‘(1) AFFECTED
LOCAL
GOVERNMENT.—The 
term ‘affected local government’ means— 
‘‘(A) the public body authorized by State 
law to plan for the management of municipal 
solid waste, a majority of the members of which 
are elected officials, for the area in which a
landfill or incinerator is located or proposed to 
be located; 
‘‘(B) if there is no such body authorized by 
State law, the elected officials of the city, town, 
township, borough, county, or parish exercising 
primary responsibility over municipal solid 
waste management or the use of land in the ju-
risdiction in which a landfill or incinerator is lo-
cated or proposed to be located; or 
‘‘(C) contiguous units of local government 
located in each of 2 or more adjoining States 
acting jointly as an affected local government, 
pursuant to the authority provided in section 
1005(b), for purposes of providing authoriza-
tion under subsection (b) for municipal solid 
waste generated in the jurisdiction of one of 
those units of local government and received for 
disposal or incineration in the jurisdiction of 
another. 
‘‘(2) HOST
COMMUNITY
AGREEMENT.—The 
term ‘host community agreement’ means a written, 
legally binding agreement, lawfully entered into be-
fore the date of the enactment of this section be-
tween an owner or operator of a landfill or inciner-
ator and an affected local government that specifi-
cally authorizes the landfill or incinerator to receive 
out-of-State municipal solid waste. 
‘‘(3) MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE.— 
‘‘(A) WASTE INCLUDED.—Except as pro-
vided in subparagraph (B), the term ‘municipal 
solid waste’ means— 
‘‘(i) all waste materials discarded for 
disposal by households, including single 
and multifamily residences, and hotels and 
motels; 
‘‘(ii) sewage sludge and residuals from 
any sewage treatment plant; 
‘‘(iii) combustion ash generated by re-
source recovery facilities or municipal in-
cinerators; 
‘‘(iv) petroleum contaminated soil; and 
‘‘(v) all waste materials discarded for 
disposal that were generated by commer-
cial, institutional, municipal, and industrial 
sources, to the extent such materials— 
‘‘(I) are essentially the same as 
materials described in clause (i); and 
‘‘(II) were collected and disposed 
of with other municipal solid waste 
described in clause (i) or subclause (I)
of this clause as part of normal mu-
nicipal solid waste collection services, 
except that this subclause does not 
apply to hazardous materials other 
than hazardous materials that, pursu-
ant to regulations issued under sec-
tion 3001(d), are not subject to regu-
lation under subtitle C. 
Examples of municipal solid waste include food 
and yard waste, paper, clothing, appliances, 
consumer product packaging, disposable dia-
pers, office supplies, cosmetics, glass and metal 
food containers, and household hazardous 
waste. Such term shall include debris resulting 
from construction, remodeling, repair, or demo-
lition of structures. 
‘‘(B) WASTE NOT INCLUDED.—The term 
‘municipal solid waste’ does not include any of 
the following: 
‘‘(i) Any solid waste identified or list-
ed as a hazardous waste under section 
3001, except for household hazardous 
waste. 
‘‘(ii) Any solid waste, including con-
taminated soil (other than petroleum con-
taminated 
soil) 
and 
debris, 
resulting 
from— 
‘‘(I) a response action taken 
under section 104 or 106 of the Com-
prehensive Environmental Response, 
Compensation, and Liability Act (42 
U.S.C. 9604 or 9606); 
‘‘(II) a response action taken 
under a State law with authorities 
comparable to the authorities of such 
section 104 or 106; or 
‘‘(III) a corrective action taken 
under this Act. 
‘‘(iii) Recyclable materials that have 
been separated, at the source of the waste, 
from waste otherwise destined for disposal 
or that have been managed separately from 
waste destined for disposal. 
‘‘(iv) Scrap rubber to be used as a 
fuel source. 
‘‘(v) Materials and products returned 
from a dispenser or distributor to the man-
ufacturer or an agent of the manufacturer 
for credit, evaluation, and possible reuse. 
‘‘(vi) Any solid waste that is—
‘‘(I) generated by an industrial 
facility; and 
‘‘(II) transported for the purpose 
of treatment, storage, or disposal to a 
facility or unit thereof that is owned 
or operated by the generator of the 
waste, located on property owned by 
the generator or a company with 
which the generator is affiliated, or 
the capacity of which is contractually 
dedicated exclusively to a specific gen-
erator, so long as the disposal area 
complies with local and State land use 
and zoning regulations applicable to 
the disposal site. 
‘‘(vii) Any medical waste that is seg-
regated from or not mixed with solid 
waste. 
‘‘(viii) Waste from manufacturing or 
processing (including pollution control) op-
erations not essentially the same as waste 
normally generated by households. 
‘‘(4) 
OUT-OF-STATE
MUNICIPAL
SOLID 
WASTE.—The term ‘out-of-State municipal solid 
waste’ means, with respect to any State, municipal
solid waste generated outside of the State. The term 
includes municipal solid waste generated outside of 
the United States and includes municipal solid waste 
generated outside of the State that has passed 
through a transfer facility or other interim holding 
facility inside the State. 
‘‘(5) RECYCLABLE MATERIALS.—The term ‘re-
cyclable materials’ means materials that are di-
verted, separated from, or separately managed from 
materials otherwise destined for disposal as solid 
waste, by collecting, sorting, or processing for use as 
raw materials or feedstocks in lieu of, or in addition 
to, virgin materials, including petroleum, in the 
manufacture of usable materials or products. 
‘‘(6) SPECIFICALLY
AUTHORIZES.—The term 
‘specifically authorizes’ refers to an explicit author-
ization, contained in a host community agreement or 
permit, to import municipal solid waste from outside 
the State. Such authorization may include a ref-
erence to a fixed radius surrounding the landfill or 
incinerator which includes an area outside the State 
or a reference to ‘any place of origin’, reference to 
specific places outside the State, or use of such 
phrases as ‘regardless of origin’ or ‘outside the 
State’. The language for such authorization must