MORGANTOWN — the House Government Organization Committee breezed through a bill to require the Division of Highways to develop a road funding allocation formula in just a few seconds, then spent a good 20-plus minutes questioning a bill to allow more scrap tire haulers to operate in the state.
Meanwhile, House Judiciary approved a bill to improve the processing of rape kits.
Road fund formula
HB 4120 passed in a flash. Staff counsel described the bill in a single sentence. No one commented or asked questions. The vote was unanimous. It goes to the House floor.
The bill is a resurrection of last year’s HB 3044, which passed both chambers and fell to a veto. It originated from the Monongalia County delegation after Delegates Evan Hansen and John Williams ran some numbers and determined that the DOH apparently shorted District 4 about $15 million over two years by not following the existing formula – which is only a guideline and not a mandate.
Gov. Jim Justice’s veto message said that while the formula might prove useful, it would restrict the DOH’s ability to distribute maintenance money as needed.
HB 4120 says, “A transparent process to develop an official formula for allocating road funds among districts in the state is crucial to ensure that funds are distributed in an effective and efficient manner, based on the needs of the counties within the districts.”
It requires the DOH to develop a formula based on county population, population growth, lane miles, vehicle miles, heavy truck miles and number of bridges. The DOH must accept and review public comments before developing the formula.
Tire hauling
HB 4026 would exempt from Public Service Commission jurisdiction companies that transport scrap tires to approved disposal sites and trucks operating under a Department of Environmental Protection contract to transport tires collected under its Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan (REAP) program.
The idea committee members and the DEP said, is to get more people involved in the business, though some members worried it might create more scrap piles around the state from haulers who don’t take them to approved sites.
“You think that’s what they’re going to do with them,” said Delegate Terri Sypolt, R-Preston. “I have a great concern with that.”
Delegate Dean Jeffries, R-Kanawha, is lead sponsor and explained why he offered it last year and this year. After the 2016 Elk River flood, tire piles abounded and there aren’t enough haulers or places to haul them. Tire hauling requires a PSC permit and one person interested in doing it was denied.
“We need to open this up to get these things hauled off,” he said.
Chair Gary Howell, R-Mineral, pointed out that out-of-state haulers don’t need a PSC permit; they can come in, pick up tires and haul them back out; so the PSC process essentially restricts West Virginia business.
While the PSC permits haulers, the DEP regulates how and where the tires are disposed of.
Dennis Stottlemeyer, DEP’s deputy environmental advocate for the REAP program, said there were three sites that accepted tires, but the Preston facility is undergoing a management change so now there are only two.
REAP holds annual tire collection events in counties around the state, he said. In 2019, it collected 160,474 tires – 1,700 tons – at a cost of $3.98 per tire. Since 2015, the number of haulers eligible under PSC regulation has shrunk from three to one, and the cost has consequently doubled.
Several vendors tried ot get PSC permits, he said, but were denied.
Exempting contracts form PSC permitting, he said, would allow more people to bid for contracts and lower the price DEP pays to have them hauled away.
In recent years, he said, DEP has caught only two people illegally dumping tires, but it finds illegal piles weekly. Along with the REAP collections, DEP has half a dozen collection trailers stationed around the state where residents can drop off their scrap tires.
“It’s our goal to make it as easy as possible for individuals to get rid of tires,” he said.
A delegate who is a licensed trash hauler said trash companies receive a 50 cent monthly fee from their customers that entitles them to have a certain number of tires hauled away with their regular trash.
HB 4026 now goes to the House floor.
Rape kits
HB 4476 deals with establishing, managing and monitoring “a statewide system to facilitate the timely and efficient collection, submission, testing, retention, and disposition of forensic evidence in sexual assault cases.”
It expands current code on the subject with lengthy instructions on how all that will be accomplished.
Among them: A sexual assault forensic examination collected by any health care provider must be submitted to the State Police Forensic Laboratory for testing within 30 days of collection or as soon as reasonably practicable. All kits collected will be processed and tested for DNA and marked to note that a sexual offense has allegedly occurred.
After processing, he kit will be sent to the appropriate investigating local or state law enforcement agency. The agency must keep the kit until a convicted offender is released or in a cold case, indefinitely or until a person is convicted, imprisoned and released.
Dave Miller, with the State Police lab, told members they have a four- to five-month backlog of biological cases ot process, including rape kits. But many kits were shelved long ago and he’s been reviewing cases submitted as far back as 1992. “This bill would address that by making sure all kits are tested and not put on the shelf.”
HB 4476 passed unanimously and goes to the House floor.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
