We are a landscape company…

We are a landscape company. How this regulation affects our industry is by dumping sites not accepting clean fill, the requirement to test soil, which is not from contaminated sites and additional record keeping for our drivers.

This regulation is supposed to stop illegal dumping however if individuals are illegally dumping, they are not dumping at landfills, they are most likely finding other places to dump. Which will increase should this regulation go through. If contractors are unable to dump at the usual sites, they will find other places to dump. It is like creating a black market.

I can see how testing large areas before a subdivision is put in, but penalizing small landscape companies for digging in a backyard is wrong. Most times, we use what soil we can on the site and only remove what we have too. However, there is still soil to be hauled back to our yard to be used at another job. We haul small loads of soil (5-15 yards of soil at a time). Having additional paperwork and not a proper logging book adds more administrative hours which we cannot afford as a small business. In addition, most areas we dig in have been tested years before as they are new build sites and most likely required a test prior to construction. It seems unnecessary to create a blanket regulation on soil, when it is the bigger companies and the bigger developers that are causes this issue.

A reminder that the little companies are doing everything we can to comply and keep our company going. Keeping people employed and our economy going. By implementing such a regulation, you could shut down the industry.

Dumping sites are not accepting fill, because they are afraid they may get a contaminated load and be faced a fine, pay for testing and pay for the removal of soil. This regulation overwhelms labs for soil testing etc.,

Please take the time to get more feedback from the industries affected.

Thank you.