§22C-4A-1. Local participation, legislative findings and purposes;
referendum.
(a) The Legislature finds that the potential impacts of
commercial solid waste disposal facilities have a deleterious and
debilitating effect upon the transportation network, property
values, economic growth, environmental quality, other land uses,
and the public health and welfare. These impacts are borne
predominantly by the local residents in the communities where the
facilities are located. The Legislature also recognizes that
economic benefits exist for having a solid waste facility,
including new jobs in the local community and increased tax and fee
revenues for the state. The largest of facilities authorized to
operate in West Virginia, Class A facilities, receive up to thirty
thousand tons of solid waste per month. Class A facilities
inevitably cause the most severe impacts to the local area. The
Legislature further finds that Class A facilities cause significant
impact on the local community above and beyond those of smaller
landfills, that this impact requires the local community be
afforded the opportunity to participate in the decision of locating
a landfill of this size in their community. Further, local
citizens need governmental entities to assure and verify that the
Class A facility will be developed and operated in a manner that
complies with all laws, rules and regulations which regulate
landfills, and that the local infrastructure and environment are
appropriately suited for a Class A facility. As a result, the Legislature finds that a mechanism must be in place to allow for
the local community to be a significant participant in the Class A
facility siting and expansion decision-making process.
(b) Therefore, it is the purpose of the Legislature to allow
the local decision for location of new Class A landfills by county
referendum, and further that a petition process be established to
allow demand for a county referendum for expansion of an existing
Class A landfill or redesignation of a Class B landfill to Class A.