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Senate hearing reviews 3-year pause on new landfill permits in HB 171
Summary
Lawmakers and stakeholders testified in favor of a three-year moratorium on permitting new municipal solid-waste landfills, citing current capacity, out-of-state waste and the need to finish related rulemaking; industry and some engineers urged alternative approaches rather than a moratorium.
Representative Nick Germana, prime sponsor of HB 171, opened a Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing urging a three-year pause on permitting new municipal solid-waste landfills, saying the moratorium would allow regulators time to finish rulemaking and policy work.
"Now is the perfect time for us to enact a pause on landfill permitting in the state for 2 reasons that I'm going to talk about briefly this morning," Germana said, arguing New Hampshire has sufficient disposal capacity in the near term and that the governor supports the moratorium.
The bill would allow the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) to accept applications and evaluate them for completeness during the pause but would prohibit issuing permits for new landfills for three years. Representative Judy Aaron, chair of the House Environment and Agriculture Committee, testified she supports the moratorium and told senators the pause would give DES time "to develop new regulations, data, technologies, and policies that will protect New Hampshire and its local communities."…
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