Committee advances landfill methane-monitoring bill to House floor

The House Climate, Energy and Environment Committee voted May 20 to send Senate Bill 726A to the full House with a do-pass recommendation after adopting an A‑7 amendment that narrows the bill’s definition of municipal solid waste landfills and imposes a 10-day re-monitoring requirement following detected surface-emissions exceedances, committee staff said.

Erin, a committee staff member, told the committee, “Senate Bill 726A requires the Environmental Quality Commission to establish rules for surface emissions monitoring and mitigation of methane gas emissions from municipal solid waste landfills.” She summarized the A‑7 amendment as modifying the landfill definition to specify that it applies to sites located in Benton County and requiring that the owner or operator “monitor rather than remonitor the site of any exceedance within 10 days of the first detecting the exceedance.” She said the bill has a minimal fiscal impact and “no revenue impact.”

The measure drew brief debate on the committee floor over whether the state should impose more regulations on waste systems without a coordinated statewide waste-management plan. Representative Emerson Levy said he would register a committee “courtesy yes” but planned to vote no on the floor, explaining, “we keep putting regulations on our municipal waste systems and waste systems generally without having a larger plan for the state and how we're going to manage our waste.” Representative Bobby Levy expressed a similar position, saying he would give a “courtesy yes, but a no on the floor.”

Vice Chair Grama moved to adopt the A‑7 amendment; the committee chair indicated no objections and the amendment was accepted. Vice Chair Gamba moved to advance SB 726A to the House floor as amended with a do-pass recommendation. The roll call on that motion recorded the following votes as read on the record: Representative Anderson — yes; Representative Edwards — yes; Representative Helm — aye; Representative Emerson Levy — yes; Representative Mark — yes; Representative Osborne — no; Representative Owens — no; Vice Chair Gamba — aye; Representative Bobby Levy — yes; Chair Terry Lively — aye. Representative Waller was listed as excused. The chair announced, “Aye. Motion carries.”

Representative Anderson indicated she would carry the bill on the House floor. Committee staff noted no subsequent referral would follow the work session.

The bill, as described in committee, directs the Environmental Quality Commission to adopt rules for surface emissions monitoring and mitigation of methane at municipal solid waste landfills and, per the A‑7 amendment, applies to landfills located in Benton County and requires re-monitoring within 10 days after an exceedance is first detected. Committee staff said the amendment and the bill together have a minimal fiscal impact and no revenue impact.

The committee closed the work session after the vote; no additional public testimony or amendments were recorded in the transcript.