Snyder Wants Higher Landfill Fee To Fund Cleanup Programs

By JOHN FLESHER and DAVID EGGERT, Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Gov. Rick Snyder wants to boost Michigan's fee for taking waste to landfills and use the revenue to clean up contaminated sites and fund other environmental protection programs.

Snyder said Tuesday his plan is a replacement for the Clean Michigan Initiative, a bond issue approved by voters in 1998 that generated $675 million but is expected to dry up this year. He wants to raise the landfill dumping fee from 36 cents per ton to $4.75 per ton, which would generate $79 million a year.

The Republican governor says other Midwestern states charge as much as $13 per ton for landfill waste disposal.

In addition to restoring thousands of polluted industrial sites, the fee increase would provide grants to encourage more recycling and water quality monitoring, along with state park infrastructure improvements.

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