The Borough Council, recognizing its responsibilities under the state’s Solid Waste Management Act, 35 P.S. §§ 6018.101 et seq., and the state’s Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling, and Waste Reduction Act, 53 P.S. §§ 4000.101 et seq., and pursuant as well to the powers given it under the Borough Code, particularly 53 P.S. § 46202, hereby determines, declares, and finds as follows.
(A) The closure of municipal waste disposal sites in the Bedford-Fulton-Huntingdon Counties service area, and the closure or pending closure of disposal sites in neighboring counties, has created an increasingly difficult disposal problem for the borough.
(B) The borough’s waste haulers must travel increasingly greater distance at increasing cost to borough residents for proper disposal.
(C) The continuation of these conditions indicate that the borough and the Authority will face a crisis of waste accumulation that threatens the sanitation, health, and safety of the borough’s residents.
(D) Improper and inadequate solid waste practices would create public health hazards, environmental pollution, and economic loss, would cause irreparable harm to the public health, safety, and welfare.
(E) The provisions of this chapter set forth hereinafter will promote the public health, safety, and welfare, and eliminate or reduce the public health hazards, environmental pollution, and economic losses caused by inadequate and improper solid waste practices.
(F) The actions hereafter prescribed are in furtherance of the goals and policies of the state’s Solid Waste Management Act and the official plan for a solid waste management system in the Authority service area.
(G) The actions hereafter prescribed are in conformity with the existing official plan of solid waste management adopted for the borough, particularly as it relates to the eventual development of a solid waste disposal system for the Authority and a requirement that waste collection be done by independent, private collectors under license by the municipalities.
(H) The actions herein prescribed are in conformity with the planning now under way by the three county planning officers for revising the official plan for solid waste management.
(I) Accordingly, it is the purpose of the Act to accomplish the following:
(1) Provide for the effective implementation of the state’s Solid Waste Management Act, 35 P.S. §§ 6018.101 et seq., and the official plan for solid waste management of the borough;
(2) Provide for the effective collection, transportation, processing, and interim and final disposal of municipal waste which is generated or present within the borough;
(3) Require licenses for municipal waste collection and transportation;
(4) Provide for the collection of municipal waste in an appropriate, sanitary fashion so as to protect the public health, safety, and welfare; and
(5) Reduce the costs of municipal waste collection and disposal by providing for integrated and efficient processing of municipal waste at a transfer or disposal facility hereinafter described.
(Prior Code, Ch. 20, Pt. 1, § 101) (Ord. 2-87, passed 6-1-1987; Ord. 2-2001; passed 7-2-2001)