Loose Lips is to be congratulated for the public service of clarifying the solid-waste transfer-station issues that face the city (2/12).

As a professional analyst and commentator on the District’s solid waste matters, I can attest to the difficulties involved.

I offer one technical correction. If the private transfer stations were to leave the city, costs would rise 15 percent, 20 percent tops; not 100 percent, as suggested.

The waste corporations are indeed formidable, and the city’s inertia. should never be underestimated. But citizens are organized, and there is a core of councilmembers upon which to build support for the new rules that will allow environmentally responsible businesses to operate in the city. The city also needs to be defended from the flow of 1 million tons of Virginia and Maryland waste that burdens our neighborhoods. Suburban waste is not commerce, and it should not be treated as such.

President

Institute for Local Self-Reliance