Twenty years after sponsoring legislation creating solid waste management districts in Indiana, state Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, has some big concerns with the size and approach of the operations that have taken shape in Lake County.

"They are totally out of control," she said.

Gard is calling for a statewide re-evaluation of the recycling districts to be undertaken by an interim study committee next summer.

Gard, who chairs the Senate Energy and Environmental Affairs Committee, said the local solid waste districts were created with the goal of reducing the amount of garbage headed to landfills at a time when disposal space was critically low. She said she intended for the districts to facilitate recycling, which was a fledgling effort at the time, and to carry out education on waste reduction.

She said she never envisioned a district growing as large and as wealthy as the one in Lake County.

The Lake County Solid Waste Management District is the largest of the 70 districts across the state, in terms of its nearly $5.2 million annual budget. That cash is generated mostly by a property tax, according to Lance Hodge, executive director of the Association of Indiana Solid Waste Management Districts.

Marion County, which already had a system in place decades ago, was not required to form a solid waste district, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

The Lake County district has eight full-time employees, including a full-time attorney paid $84,437 a year, said Executive Director Jeff Langbehn, who receives an annual salary of $102,129 and a take-home vehicle.

He defended his salary by pointing out he is an attorney and has 20 years of experience.

The Porter County district, by comparison, operates with a budget of $900,147, generated mostly by an annual fee of $13 per household. It has six full-time and four part-time employees, and a director who is paid $60,075 and afforded a take-home vehicle.

Lake County's budget is nearly six times that of Porter County, yet it has only about three times the number of housing units, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Gard also is concerned the Lake County district is crossing into territory better covered by private companies in its efforts to establish a garbage-to-ethanol plant.

Langbehn said the proposed biofuel plant will be owned by a private company, though the district is organizing the cost-cutting effort and will distribute the funds generated.

Hodge said this role is similar to that played by other districts with landfills.

Langbehn further defended the district by saying it has won more environmental excellence awards than all the other districts across the state combined. This was accomplished while submitting to three voluntary tax reductions over the years, he said.

The district distributes $3.2 million of its budget each year to the 19 local municipal members to support their recycling efforts, he said.

While Gard questioned why the municipalities don't just collect the recycling fees themselves, Hodge said that falls within the role of the waste districts.

Langbehn said he supports the proposed re-evaluation of the districts and would like to see them consolidated into 15 mega-districts statewide to end the large variation of services now provided.

"We could advance the cause a lot more," he said.

The Lake County district operates 18 recycling drop-off sites and three electronic collection sites while also overseeing leaf collection throughout unincorporated areas. It dramatically cut the cost of its household hazardous waste collection efforts by teaming up with Porter and LaPorte counties, Langbehn said. The district also educates 75,000 students each year, he said.

Therese Davis, executive director of the Recycling and Waste Reduction District of Porter County, said she manages educational programs, seven recycling drop-off sites and electronics, battery and hazardous waste collection sites.

The district also owns a compost site and maintains others throughout the county. Davis said the district discontinued leaf collection because of the cost.

While each of the districts initially were required to turn in a 20-year waste reduction plan, there is no requirement that they provide regular updates on their progress, according to Bruce Palin, assistant commissioner for the Office of Land Quality at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

The districts are overseen by both a board of local elected officials and a citizen advisory board.

"They've pretty much become a home rule group," he said.

Langbehn accused Gard of being in the pocket of the waste industry -- a charge she called absurd.

He said she has been critical of the district while failing for three years to accept an invitation to visit the site.

"Please come up here and see," he said.

The largest solid waste districts in Indiana and their 2009 budgets:

1- Lake County, $5.18 million

2- Bartholomew County, $3.88 million

3- St. Joseph County, $2.71 million

4- Monroe County, $2.48 million

5- LaPorte County, $2.32 million

6- Lawrence County, $2.09 million

7- Warrick County, $1.58 million

8- Adams County, $1.43 million

9- Southeastern Indiana, $1.29 million

10- Gibson County, $1.12 million

15- Porter County, $900,147

The smallest budget reported was Vermillion County, $13,640.

Data provided in part by the Association of Indiana Solid Waste Management Districts.