A. Creation of the Commission.-During the 1973 Session of the General Assembly the Commission to Study and Advise Upon the Disposal of Solid Wastes was created by Senate Bill No. 856, introduced by Senator Walker. Under the provisions of Senate Bill No. 856 the Commission was directed to study all problems relating to the causes, collection and disposal of solid wastes. During the 1976 Session of the General Assembly the name of the Commission was changed to the Solid Waste Commission. (Senate Bill 383)

The members of this Commission as of July 1, 1976 are: Dr. Robert F. Testin, Richmond; William M. Beck, Jr., Norfolk; Callis H. Atkins, Ruckersville; Delegate Richard M. Bagley, Hampton; Robert Cosby, Powhatan; Ernest C. Edwards, Jr., Chase City; Joseph M. Guiffre, Alexandria; Delegate Joan S. Jones, Lynchburg; Jonathan Murdoch-Kitt, Richmond; J. D. Pennewell, Chincoteague; William T. Reed, Manakin-Sabot; Delegate Richard Saslaw, Annandale; Senator Stanley C. Walker, Norfolk. Mr. R. E. Dorer, Director of the Bureau of Solid Wastes and Vector Control, served as consultant to the Commission, and Mr. William M. Amrhein as counsel. Bragdon R. Bowling, Jr., and Susan T. Gill serve as staff from the Division of Legislative Services.

B. Background.-The major activity of the Commission during 1976 was studying the advisability of a comprehensive statewide solid waste management plan.

As background for this effort, the Commission in late 1974 funded a State-of-the-Art study on "Solid Waste in Virginia" by the firm Hayes, Seay, Mattern and Mattern. The final report on this study concluded that while "there has been significant improvement in solid waste disposal practices in the past decade" ... "Virginia is still faced with complex solid waste problems." The first problem area noted by the consultant was: "There is a lack of long-range comprehensive planning for handling Virginia's increasing volume of solid waste." A number of other problem areas were also noted by the consultant. These have been summarized in Reference 1.

In the spring and summer of 1975 a series of public hearings were held by the Solid Waste Commission in eight different locations around the Commonwealth. These hearings gave the Commission a valuable insight into a number of broad problem areas facing the citizens of Virginia. A summary of the results of these hearings is included in the Commission report for 1975 (Reference 2).

Finally, the 1976 Session of the Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution "That the Commission is urged to continue its efforts and studies to the end that a statewide solid waste management and disposal plan can be implemented to encompass the needs and problems of all areas of the Commonwealth in the most practically efficient and realistically economical manner ... " (Senate Joint Resolution No. 48).

In carrying out its general and specific charges during the past year, the full Commission met 5 times. In addition, there were numerous meetings of Commission subcommittees during the year.

This report is a summary of the Commission activities during the year 1976.