Figures show that Alabama is not a particularly trashy state — at least when it comes to producing garbage.

Today, Alabama holds 1.5 percent of the nation's population, according to calculations in the Mobile Press-Register that are based on an Environmental Protection Agency formula. Additionally, the state generates 1.6 percent of the waste that goes into landfills.

Not bad.

Then why, Alabamians may ask, has the Alabama Department of Environmental Management issued permits that will allow approximately 7.5 percent of the nation's garbage to be dumped into our fair state? Why is Alabama the Beautiful becoming Alabama the Trashy?

Because there is money in those dumps.

There's also danger.

Alabama's permitting process leaves the decision on whether to allow a landfill to local governments. For poor counties with lots of open, remote and rural land, this means the promise of big money and a steady income without raising taxes. Local governments love that combination.

Thus, many counties ask ADEM to OK an operation like the landfill in Coffee County. That done, nearby states — and some far away — start bringing in their garbage and paying the county $18.55 cents a ton to take it off their hands.

Pretty good deal? Not really. According to a 2005 analysis by the state of Georgia, Alabama landfills charge less than any other Southern state, the Press-Register reported. Some Northern states have charged as much as $100 a ton. Once again, Alabama is selling itself cheap.

In addition to the revenue, it's also getting a residual effect that could become an environmental disaster.

When Timberlands Sanitary Landfill opened in 1995 in Escambia County, its operators told area residents that the trash would be contained with a state-of-the-art liner that would not leak. Guess what? It is leaking.

ADEM data shows that mercury and other contaminates are seeping into the groundwater around the site. Also, a decade before Timberlands claimed its liner would protect area residents, the EPA warned anyone who would listen that all landfill liners eventually would leak. Apparently, the people who approved the Timberlands permit weren't listening.

Today, ADEM should tighten its permitting process and become a more equal partner in granting anyone — in-state or out — permission to build a landfill in Alabama. This tightening also should include stricter regulations on how and where the landfill can be built.

Meanwhile, companies seeking to locate landfills in the state should be required to set aside money for cleanup and long-term maintenance after the site is full and closed.

Lastly, ADEM and the counties should agree on a fee structure that will bring the state in line with what other states charge. It is bad enough to be dumped on. It is even worse to be trashed so cheaply.

As long as Americans continue to produce such large amounts of garbage, there will be a need for landfills. Alabama can have its share of these facilities — but only on terms that favor this state, not the ones who dump their trash on us.