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Garfield County seeks party status in state methane rulemaking for landfills
Summary
The Garfield County Board of County Commissioners authorized staff to seek party status in Colorado Air Quality Control Commission rulemaking on landfill methane (Regulation 31), citing potential multi-million-dollar costs for monitoring and gas capture that could raise tip fees and spur illegal dumping.
The Garfield County Board of County Commissioners on Monday authorized county staff to request party status in the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission’s rulemaking on landfill methane, known in the draft documents as Regulation 31.
Commissioners said the measure is intended to let Garfield County participate in prehearing conferences and submit technical comments as the state considers rules that could require monitoring and gas-capture infrastructure at local landfills.
County staff and landfill consultants told the board the eventual requirements could be costly. Bentley Henderson, speaking for county staff, said preliminary estimates for Garfield County’s landfill capital costs for gas capture fall in a broad range of about $2 million to $3 million. He warned ongoing monitoring and consultant support could create new annual operating needs and said tip fees might have to rise to cover the work, with the potential to push some customers toward illegal dumping.
The county described a multi-jurisdictional steering committee convened by Jennifer Richardson, a landfill manager in Mesa County, that is coordinating technical input from landfill operators across Colorado. Deb (listed in the meeting as a staff participant) told the board the county should obtain party status so it can submit comments and “see what happens” in the rulemaking.
Commissioners asked how the new requirements could affect households and haulers. Staff said increases in tip fees would likely be passed along by haulers to customers, affecting all residents who pay for trash service. Staff also noted the rulemaking appears designed to set minimum thresholds that, when met by a particular landfill, could trigger additional capture and control obligations.
The board voted to authorize administration to request party status and to work with the county’s engineering consultants and the steering committee to prepare a prehearing statement and other filings. Staff said the party-status request would be submitted within days to meet the state deadline and that a prehearing statement would follow as required later in the process.
The county plans to have its landfill consultant (SCS Consulting) do a deeper analysis and present fuller budget implications at a June work session so commissioners can consider next steps and potential budget impacts.
The authorization does not itself commit the county to any capital or operating expenditures; it allows the county to participate in the regulatory process and develop technical positions and cost estimates.
Ending: Staff said they will submit the party-status letter to the Air Quality Control Commission by the state deadline and return to the board in June with consultant analysis on likely costs and operational effects.
