Medical waste? Solid waste? City ordinance will be getting rewrite

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998 | 11:33 a.m.

A Las Vegas city ordinance dealing with solid and medical waste disposal will be rewritten in light of a judge's ruling in a court battle between two giants in the field of waste management.

City Manager Virginia Valentine said Tuesday that as a result of an injunction hearing brought by BFI Waste Systems of North America against Republic Silver State Disposal the City Council will rewrite an ordinance that was drafted long before federal laws changed the way medical waste was handled.

When the city code covering waste material was created, Valentine pointed out, there was no distinction between medical and solid waste.

"Back when the code was written, it was all solid waste," she said.

Valentine said because of last week's hearing the re-write will clarify the ordinance's definitions.

At the conclusion of the hearing District Judge Stephen Huffaker rejected BFI's request for an injunction but criticized the city for a poorly written franchise agreement with Silver State.

BFI is challenging the monopoly held by Silver State, whose subsidiary, Environmental Technologies, collects medical waste in the city.

As a result of the legal action begun by BFI it was revealed that Silver State has not paid Las Vegas a franchise fee since Environmental Technologies (ET) was created in 1991.

Silver State President Stephen Kalish called the overdue fees an oversight that amounts to about $200,000. He said the company pays between $6 million and $7 million per year in fees to local governments, and so the overlooked fees are relatively small.

Robert Groesbeck, general counsel for Silver State, says federal laws governing the disposal of medical waste have changed in the 1990s.

"Before 1991, the fees were paid. Medical waste disposal wasn't regulated then," Groesbeck noted.

However BFI attorney Frank Cremen said Tuesday there was not merely one oversight, but several -- which amounts to a dereliction of duty not only on the part of Silver State but the city of Las Vegas as well.

According to Cremen, ET has not provided quarterly financial reports, as required, nor has it provided the city with an annual certified audit nor paid a 5 percent annual fee based upon its gross income.

He said Silver State on the one hand wants to call medical waste garbage, thus giving the company the exclusive right to pick it up and dispose of it, but on the other hand it wants to call it "medical waste," and charge customers higher fees for collecting it.

Groesbeck dismissed Cremen's statements as "posturing."

"Mr. Cremen has raised a number of allegations, all of which have been dismissed by District Court and the (state) Supreme Court," Groesbeck said. "It's a lot of posturing by BFI. They are wrong on the facts, they are wrong on the law. If they want to continue to pursue these specific claims we are confident we will prevail."

Cremen said BFI is looking at its options, whether to go back to District Court and litigate the issues or to await the outcome of a pending appeal.

"If they want to pursue it we will continue with our defense and, if need be, we will institute litigation against hospitals working with BFI in violation of our exclusive franchise," Groesbeck said.