Federal Regulation of Landfills

One of the reasons that the construction of new landfill facilities has slowed down considerably is due to legislation at the state, provincial and federal level.

These laws have not only mandate more restrictive rules on the owners of landfills, but are often conflicting with state and provincial laws and regulations.

Many of the regulations passed in the 1990s caused an unprecedented number of landfills to simply shut down, rather than be held liable for updates and fines relating to past problems or updates required to continue on. As a result, the total number landfills decreased and, according to the “law” of supply and demand, the price to deposit in those existing landfills increased significantly.

In particular, many landfills that shut down before 1993, in an effort to avoid fines for water and soil pollution did so in such a rush that their efforts to contain the “final product” were grossly inadequate, leading to even higher costs that owners hoped to recoup from their remaining facilities.

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