County issues new rules for recyclers

Friday, Jan. 25, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

In an effort to outlaw "rogue" recycling outfits and unkempt facilities, the Clark County Health District Board on Thursday adopted new regulations to prevent recyclers from handling contaminated waste.

The board's action gives county health officials more direct oversight of an estimated 50 local recycling companies, which have operated under state laws and have been required to obtain business permits.

The county is concerned about the adverse environmental impacts created by companies that allegedly have stored hazardous or contaminated materials they aren't equipped to handle. The county also wants to clean up unsightly recycling facilities.

The new regulations add an extra layer of requirements covering issues such as how to design and operate a recycling facility to how to obtain bonding to cover the cost of closing such an operation. The recyclers have 120 days to comply by obtaining recycling permits from the county.

"We want legitimate businesses in our community to recycle," Glenn Savage, the health district's environmental health supervisor, said after the meeting. "We want to make recycling work in our community."

Republic Services of Southern Nevada, which has exclusive agreements with local governments to collect residential as well as hazardous and contaminated waste in the Las Vegas Valley, also must adhere to the new regulations because it, too, is a recycler.

But the rules also work to Republic's advantage because all other recyclers will be permitted to handle no more than an "insubstantial amount" of waste they are otherwise not allowed to process. The list of nonpermitted waste includes hazardous wastes, polychlorinated biphenyls, asbestos, contaminated soils, raw sewage, septic tank pumpings and medical waste.

Although board member and Clark County Commissioner Chip Maxfield voted to approve the regulations, he expressed concern that the definition of "insubstantial amount" was vague and would be too difficult to enforce.

"It's going to cause problems in the future," he said. "It will mean one thing to one person and one thing to another."

The board agreed and approved Maxfield's suggestion that health officials explore the possibility of establishing a maximum percentage by volume of non-permitted waste that can be mixed in with recyclable material, which is collected by recyclers from local businesses and industries.

Recyclers are allowed to handle newspaper, corrugated cardboard, aluminum, yard debris, office paper, glass, tin and steel cans, metal, motor oil, plastic, antifreeze, wood and food waste. But such material has to be separated at the source.

Savage showed the board photographs, which were taken by his staff, that showed recycling facilities which, he alleged, had been storing hazardous or contaminated material such as plastic containers of paint. But he also related the story of a security guard who tried to prevent health district employees from taking pictures at one facility and said the incident amounted to intimidation.

Attorney Earl Hawley, who represents Nevada Construction Clean Up Inc., 2745 N. Nellis Blvd., said the confrontation involving the security guard occurred on his client's property. Hawley said the guard was only doing his job.

"It's innuendo that's destroying what we're trying to accomplish here," Hawley said. "The (health district) staff members were told to go through the office and they did not."

Hawley said recyclers deserve to be put on notice that inspectors are coming so that normal business isn't interrupted. Board chairwoman Susan Crowley said regulatory agencies normally do not serve notice before they conduct inspections.

"I have to sympathize with a businessman who has to stop what he's doing to show an inspector around, but that's a part of doing business," Crowley said.

The board initially approved the recycling regulations in December but agreed to make room for amendments to address concerns from recyclers.

RC Farms, 555 E. El Campo Grande Ave., had objected to being considered a recycling company because it uses food waste from casinos to feed its hogs.

"We need an exception," RC Farms attorney Leonard Stone said. "The farm is already governed by the state Department of Agriculture. It is already subject to numerous requirements. This is just another one that is not necessary."

The board agreed and exempted the farm from the amended regulations.