04/10/2025

House Bill 222

Lead Sponsors: Representative Gary Click and Representative Ty Mathews

Status: Introduced (April 7, 2025)

Description: The bill makes changes regarding solid waste disposal fees and the withdrawal procedure from a joint solid waste management district (SWMD).

Disposal Fees
The bill aligns the fees SWMDs may levy on the disposal of construction and demolition debris (C&DD) with those of other solid waste disposal fees (between $1 - $2 per ton on debris generated out of state or within the SWMD and between $2 - $4 per ton on debris generated elsewhere in the state). The revenue from these fees must be forwarded to the health district that oversees the facility that collected the fees.

Note: if a health district is not approved to regulate construction and demolition debris, the SWMD may not levy these fees at facilities within that health district.

The bill eliminates the discretion that solid waste facilities have to charge solid waste disposal fees on the disposal of C&DD in lieu of the state-imposed C&DD fees.

Finally, the bill adds financial assistance to individual counties, boards of health, municipalities, and townships to mitigate the impact of solid waste facilities on public health, safety, and welfare to the list of permissible uses for solid waste disposal fees. 

Joint SWMD Withdraw
The bill eliminates the current process for withdrawing from a joint SWMD and replaces it with a new one in which a member county may withdraw without approval from other members of the SWMD. 

Under the new process, if a county wishes to withdraw from a joint SWMD, the board of county commissioners must adopt a resolution declaring its intent to withdraw and then provide notice to the SWMD's board of directors, who then must deliver notice to the Director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) and the boards of county commissioners of the other member counties.

Within 45 days of notice being delivered, all member counties must enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that describes how they will continue to operate as a joint SWMD for two years. After that, the MOU will expire, and the withdrawing county will become a county SWMD. The withdrawing county may join another joint SWMD, but cannot be required to do so by OEPA.

During the duration of the MOU, the OEPA director is required to take all necessary steps to ensure the withdrawal is effective by the MOU's expiration date.

If the counties are unable to agree to MOU terms, the county seeking to withdraw must request a hearing in a county of common pleas in an adjacent county to hear the parties and determine the terms of the MOU. This hearing must take place within 90 days of the request being made. 

If a county wishes to extend the terms of the MOU past its initial expiration date, the board of county commissioners must do one of the following, depending on how the MOU was formed:

• If the MOU was formed without court intervention, the county must request the boards of commissioners for the other member counties to agree to the extension. The extension cannot exceed 45 days.
  
  
• If a court decided the MOU's terms, the county must request that same court extend the MOU by a period not to exceed 45 days. The court then rules on whether to deny or grant the extension.

The board of directors of the joint district is required to "take all actions necessary" to ascertain, apportion, and order a division of the funds on hand, credits, and real and personal property of the district, either in money or in kind, on an equitable basis between the district and the withdrawing county, effective upon the expiration date of the MOU.

CCAO Position: Interested Party