Senate committee adopts amendment and advances bill setting state standards for green burials

Senate File 2,819, a bill that would create statewide basic standards for "green" or natural burials, advanced out of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection after the committee adopted an author’s amendment addressing stakeholder concerns.

The committee adopted an A3 amendment that removed a redundant section, retained a 20% funding withholding in one section instead of a proposed 25% increase, clarified language to address scattering of cremated remains, and removed an inflexible plot-size requirement while keeping a limit of 300 bodies per acre over a 100-year period. "This amendment addresses their concerns," said Senator Reic, the bill sponsor, who also said he worked with the Minnesota Department of Health and stakeholder groups to revise the proposal.

The bill includes a minimum burial depth of 3½ feet, setback distances from water and property lines, and the bodies-per-acre limit that the sponsor said came from an MDH study requested during a 2023 moratorium on new green cemeteries…