Responding to complaints from citizen activists, state officials promised Monday they would soon propose a nominee to represent the public on the Utah Solid and Hazardous Waste Committee.
The nine-person committee helps regulate waste disposal problems for the Utah Division of Environmental Health. It is supposed to have two members who represent the public, with other slots given to particular interests.But, for the past year and a half, it's had only one member representing the public, Kate Park. Critics pointed out in a press conference that the other member for the public, Norm Jones, retired in September 1988.
Since then, industry continues to be fully represented but the second person to stand for the public hasn't been appointed.
During a press conference in the Capitol, the activists called for a nomination to be ready for the Legislature to consider by its April 18 interim meetings.
After the press conference, Deputy Lt. Gov. Dave Hansen, who handles appointments for Gov. Norm Bangerter, said the nomination would be ready by then.
"The public has not been adequately represented since the resignation," said Karen Denton, lobbyist for the Sierra Club. "We feel strongly that if an industry representative had resigned, a replacement would have been found almost immediately. In fact, exactly this case has occurred during the same time period that the public seat has been vacant."
Denton challenged Bangerter to back up his concern for the environment "with positive action by facilitating the approval of one of our nominees." She said the fact that the second public representative has been absent from the panel for so long has "has potentially harmed Utah's health and environment."
Park said, "Citizen representation on this committee is mandated by statute. . . . The citizens of this state are not receiving fair representation."
Hansen told reporters that Bangerter had tried to find an appointee who would provide gender, political and regional balance, which meant a Democratic woman from the rural part of the state.
Another criterion was that the appointee should not be "confrontational" on waste issues. The nominee should be reasonable, responsible, and able to deal with a range of waste problems, he said.
He thought a good candidate would be Patricia Geary, an attorney who lives in Millard County. But it turned out she worked for the county attorney's office, and this could present problems as the committee already has a position earmarked for local government.
That appointment fell through toward the end of the 1990 legislative session. Hansen pledged to have another name to forward to the Legislature by April 18.
Bud Scruggs, Bangerter's chief of staff, said the state government might have a good explanation for a few months' delay in the appointment, but "there's not a good explanation for more than a year . . . "
He conceded that the Bangerter administration would "get dinged by a number of people" for the delay. He added, ruefully, that in this case, "we deserve to get dinged."
Scruggs said he was disappointed that the dispute might overshadow, at least for a while, the governor's strong efforts to protect the environment.