City: No additional garbage trucks

• Down in the dumps

The Woodbury City Council has approved a moratorium on the issuance of new reidential trash hauling licenses until Dec. 31, 2009. File photo

Talk about it

The city of Woodbury is cutting off any new trash hauling services wishing to operate in the city limits.

The Woodbury City Council voted 5-0 Jan. 28 to approve a moratorium on issuance of new residential trash hauling licenses until Dec. 31, 2009.

There was no public discussion of the item, as it was approved on the council’s consent agenda.

The impetus for the moratorium came out of a desire by the city’s volunteer environmental advisory commission (EAC) to study the possibility of creating an ordinance that would limit the number of licenses the city could issue to residential trash hauling companies.

The EAC is planning to recommend updates to outdated sections of a solid waste ordinance and study the feasibility of capping the number of residential trash hauling licenses.

Currently, the city does not have a restriction on the number of licenses it can issue to residential trash hauling services

Seven residential trash hauling companies are currently licensed to operate in the city of Woodbury.

A staff report written by environmental education coordinator Julie Lehr states that “though the city’s open market system allows residents a choice of haulers, the traffic, noise and pollution created by these trucks regularly result in complaints from residents.”

The EAC believes that the current system wastes fuel and, as a result, is not sustainable relative to energy efficiency, Lehr wrote.

Oakdale and Cottage Grove have ordinances that limit the number of residential trash hauling licenses.

In addition to the seven companies that already have licenses to operate in Woodbury, three new trash hauling companies have contacted the city to inquire about obtaining licenses in 2009, the city staff report stated.

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