OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Federal regulations enacted in recent years have resulted in fewer than half the number of landfills Oklahoma had 20 years ago. Fenton Rood of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality says the decline in dumps began when the new rules required better environmental protection in 1990. The regulations included tighter containment and management of solid waste.

Rood says because the technology required was expensive, many small-town landfills made a decision to get out of the business. The number of Oklahoma landfills declined from 140 to 40. Nationwide, the number of landfills fell from nearly 8,000 in 1988 to fewer than 2,000 presently. Guymon sanitation director Karen Rice says her city closed its landfill after the shift in federal regulations and now uses atransfer station. City workers collect garbage as usual and bring it to the station, then a driver takes the trash to a larger dump near Liberal, Kan.