By R.H. Melton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 15, 1999; Page A1

Taking in the Trash Twenty tons of D.C. trash and an equal amount of New York City trash will come to rest at a landfill in Gloucester County. (Jay Paul-For The Washington Post) A Post Series Virginia has become the nation's second biggest importer of trash, taking in out-of-state trash to seven giant landfills in rural counties and to incinerators in Fairfax and Alexandria. This series looked at how that standing evolved and the problems that have come with it. Part 1: Nearly 200 trucks line up in the Bronx each morning to carry every piece of trash picked up in the borough to Virginia landfills. The ritual shows how big a business trash has become in Virginia. With the growth, however, comes worries about truck safety and the environment. Part 2: Incinerators in Fairfax and Alexandria face a revenue crunch as giant landfills draw away trash and disposal fees. As a result, the local incinerators are taking in more industrial waste, loads they were not designed for and that have proven risky. • Sidebar: Montgomery County avoided a similar bind, but paid. Part 3: To establish itself in Virginia, the trash industry built a network of politicians and consultants to help win sites for landfills and legislation to safeguard its business. The strategy included having state legislators lobby county politicians, donating to campaigns and monitoring bills in Richmond.

RICHMOND, Jan. 14 – Virginia political leaders, with an outraged Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) at the head of the pack, savaged New York City's mayor today for suggesting that their state should accept his city's trash because of the "great benefits" the Big Apple gives the rest of the country.

From Gilmore's executive suite on the third floor of the Capitol to the Senate chamber downstairs, politicians in both parties condemned what they viewed as Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's arrogance in suggesting on Wednesday that states such as Virginia are obligated to take the city's garbage.

"We don't have the room here to handle the garbage that's produced not just by New Yorkers, but by more than 3 million more people that come here, that utilize the place every day. So this is a reciprocal relationship," he said, adding that "people in Virginia like to utilize New York because we're a cultural center, because we're a business center."

The comments fueled the angst in Richmond over out-of-state trash, which already was rising after a Washington Post report this week that trash giant Waste Management Inc. had signed an agreement with a barge company that could allow Waste Management to significantly increase the amount of trash going to a Charles City County landfill.

Gilmore aides suggested this month that he could support a ban on garbage barges and a cap on the amounts of trash in Virginia landfills, but the governor made it official in his State of the Commonwealth address Wednesday night with a ringing declaration about the state's "right, and I would say a duty," to get garbage barges off Virginia waterways.

Today, Gilmore reiterated his position, which has waste industry lobbyists descending on Richmond to try to slow the movement to ban garbage barges on Virginia waterways. The governor also fired back at Giuliani, a fellow Republican.

"The mayor is out of line," a visibly irritated Gilmore said. "To suggest that somehow there's some obligation for any other state, Virginia or otherwise, is wrong.

"New York City is a great city, but there's no equation" between its benefits and Virginia taking its trash, Gilmore said. "There is no relationship or obligation as a result of the excellence of New York City. . . . Anybody else in the entire country, from Maine to Florida to California, would be insulted by that type of approach."

Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for Giuliani, said today that the mayor would have nothing more to say on the matter. "We're not going to comment," Sturcken said. "We're not going to respond to name-calling."

Earlier in the day, the General Assembly's leading opponent of imported trash sarcastically ridiculed Giuliani's assertion that critics of the mayor's position had a "knee-jerk" aversion to garbage and should better understand the relationship between New York and states that receive its waste.

"Now let me see if I have this right," said Sen. William T. Bolling (R-Hanover). "We go to New York City and we pay our hard-earned money to get there. We pay our hard-earned money to buy goods in their shops and food in their restaurants. We spend our hard-earned money to attend plays on Broadway. Yet, somehow, we have to reciprocate for those pleasures by accepting their trash.

"This is the most outrageous thing I've seen in a long time. The people of Virginia should be outraged by the arrogance that obviously exists at the highest levels of government in New York City."

Speaking slowly in his drawl, Bolling fired one last shot: "Mr. Mayor, listen closely. You worry about what's going on in New York. We'll worry about what's going on in Virginia. But make no mistake about it. We will not stand idly by and allow the Commonwealth of Virginia to become a dumping ground for New York City and New York State."

The vehemence of Gilmore, Bolling and others reflected not only their territorial passion for Virginia's rights but also the anxiety over an issue that has dominated the first two days of the legislative session.

Talking trash, especially out-of-state garbage, is politically treacherous this legislative election year, pitting members of the same party and lawmakers from different regions of the state against one another. In low-income rural areas where most of Virginia's landfills are located, officials see dumping fees from out-of-state garbage as an economic lifeline. Elsewhere, there is rising concern about how dramatic increases in dumping could affect Virginia's environment.

Waste companies operating in Virginia give steady, though not necessarily stupendous, contributions to candidates, and those gifts become even more sought-after in years such as this one, when all 140 House and Senate seats will be on the November ballot. Gilmore himself received $100,000 from the trash industry during the 1997 governor's race.

Del. John A. "Jack" Rollison III (R-Prince William) said this morning that he received his first check from a waste company last month, before the start of the moratorium on contributions during the legislative session. Brunswick Waste Management gave Rollison $500.

"They're sending money out," said Rollison, a House committee chairman who favors Gilmore's plans to curb garbage imports.

There are political entities in Virginia, more powerful than individual candidates, that receive money from the waste industry. In three years through 1998, the industry sent $26,000 to the GOP Caucus and $40,000 to the Commonwealth Victory Fund, a Democratic umbrella group. In that same period, the 10 biggest givers sent nearly $400,000 to the political groups and individuals, state records say.

The biggest giver during the three-year period was industry giant Browning-Ferris Industries Inc., with $97,000. The next most active giver was Waste Management, which has five major landfills in Virginia, including one near the James River that will rely on a $15 million barge port the company has built.

Waste Management spokeswoman Christine Meket, who arrived here Monday and has been doing damage control ever since, said it was possible that the firm could increase its garbage shipments from New York to Virginia from 3,000 tons a day to as much as 6,000 tons a day by 2002, if several permits are granted.

Meket said her company is open to a voluntary limit on trash at its largest Virginia landfill, in Sussex County.

"Because of the public concerns, the legislators' concerns, the governor's concerns, we understand they would like to define limits on this industry," she said.

Del. Kenneth R. Plum (Fairfax), chairman of the state Democratic Party, said he had heard no concern among lawmakers that contributions "will dry up" if he and his colleagues come down hard on the industry.

That "cannot be a consideration," Plum said. "We have to separate policy-making from raising money."

The pace of giving by the waste industry seems to be increasing. State records indicate the industry gave the Commonwealth Victory Fund nearly $25,000 in 1996 and 1997, and $15,000 during the first six months of last year.

Against the backdrop of campaign finance are the politics of reelection. Lawmakers can cast themselves as pro-environment or risk being cast as corporate tools, depending on how they vote on the proposed barge ban.

"The huffin' and puffin' is going to be easy," Del. C. Richard Cranwell (Roanoke), the most powerful Democrat in the House, said of the expected debate over the issue. "The hard part is going to be actually dealing with it, with the commerce clause breathing down your neck."

The U.S. Constitution's commerce clause permits only Congress to regulate imports of commodities such as waste. Two dozen governors, U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb (D-Va.) and Plum's state central committee have urged longtime Gilmore friend U.S. Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr., a Richmond Republican who is chairman of the House Commerce Committee, to allow a vote on legislation to create exceptions to the clause.

Gilmore said that he is in touch with Bliley almost daily and that the two were having "constant discussions" about giving states and localities more authority over trash imports. Gilmore wants Congress to act quickly on the issue.

Staff writers Eric Lipton and Craig Timberg contributed to this report.