Like other counties, Camden and Union had been counting on state-guaranteed dumping fees to help pay off bonds for state-mandated incinerators.

With dumping fees at the landfill to rise from $68 to $77 a ton this summer, every scrap of garbage that can be eliminated is crucial, Ms. Scott said.

The nuclear waste business has been good for Snelling, a poor, small town that gets 40 percent of its budget from property taxes and dumping fees.

Waste industry officials said a tripling of dumping fees at New York City's Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island has also diverted shipments westward.

That, they predict, will provoke a sharp jump in dumping fees as far away as California and Florida.

Before the change, the city had received as much as $100 million in dumping fees a year from private carters, Mr. Sexton said.

And with less debris, deconstruction saves contractors dumping fees that demolition can't avoid.

In another case, A contractor clearing hurricane debris was arrested on charges that he had billed the city of North Bay Village $22,000 too much for dumping fees.

It saves the contractors from $27 to $59 a ton in dumping fees.

At the same time, the county preserved its landfills and avoided paying dumping fees of $40 a ton.