Tennessee lawmakers and other members of the state’s Solid Waste Task Force hinted Tuesday that they are considering changing a law that has allowed local governing bodies to approve or deny landfill proposals for nearly 40 years.
The idea of slimming down local control over the landfill permitting process has support from business interest groups who describe the state’s layers of local approval as a “bottleneck” preventing new landfill sites from getting the green light as existing landfills creep closer to maximum capacity.
The problem, they say, is that too many communities are using powers afforded by state laws to block plans for new or expanded landfills…