Charleston City Council passed a resolution Tuesday night in support of a bill that would repeal an existing law banning the disposal of electronic waste in landfills.
Passed in Council's Environment and Recycling Committee earlier Tuesday, Committee Chairman Ed Talkington explained why repealing that mandate is "environmentally sensible."
"The [mandate] has been ineffective because what people do outside of the city is they throw [electronic waste] over the hill and it goes into stream beds," Talkington said. "And then the water there picks up things like heavy metals and puts it into our rivers."
Electronic waste, particularly televisions, were prohibited from being thrown into landfills in 2010 in efforts to recycle them. Talkington spoke in favor of Senate Bill 473, which would amend the A. James Manchin Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan to remove the provision that prohibits electronic waste from landfill disposal. The bill is pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"When it goes to our landfill, all the water is captured, treated by the Sanitary Board, and goes through multiple tests," Talkington said. "In the six years since we stopped taking TVs, the water quality hasn't really changed at the landfill, so a lot of this stuff wasn't coming through the water anyway."
He noted that the state Department of Environmental Protection supports the bill, and Council voted unanimously to pass the resolution.
Justin Gaull, vice president of economic development for Charleston Area Alliance, also gave a presentation during Finance Committee on Tuesday. He announced that JPN Precisions, a precision machining company based in Japan, is opening an office in Charleston with plans to open a factory in the next year.
The company, a subsidiary of Teknia - another Japanese machining company - specializes in automotive and aerospace industries, Gaull said.
"They also see West Virginia as a strategic location, with its interstates and automotive market stretching from Ohio to North Carolina," Gaull said.
Gaull added Teknia expressed interest in bringing JPN to West Virginia after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's visit to Japan last May.
He couldn't give an estimate on how many jobs the new factory would create, but noted JPN signed an agreement with the Robert C. Byrd Institute for the first year, "to meet some of their local demands."
JPN registered for a West Virginia business license on Jan. 21, and Gaull said they plan to visit Charleston again sometime in March. It will have an office in Charleston Area Alliance's building on Smith Street for the first year, "once they get to a critical point where it makes sense to put the factory in," Gaull said.
Also on Tuesday, Council voted to:
n Authorize an agreement with Capitol Valley Contracting, Inc. to replace a storm sewer pipe at 23rd Street in North Charleston for nearly $273,000
n Authorize a change order of about $112,000 with McClanahan Construction for additional work on sections of a downtown streetscape, increasing the contract price to $518,492
n Approved the purchase of two stake body dump trucks for the Refuse Collection and Recycling Department for $132,400
n Approved the purchase of a flatbed service truck for the Traffic Engineering office for about $52,900
n Approved the purchase of a flatbed service truck for the Parks and Recreation Department for $43,760
n Approved the purchase of a GMC 3500 Cab and chassis to accommodate an existing dump body and hoist for $39,360
n Authorize the design, acquisition and construction of improvements to the existing sewer system and the issuance of no more than $18 million in aggregate principal amount of Sewerage System Revenue Bonds.
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.