Bill to catalogue closed and open landfill sites gets mixed agency response

Representative Haskins asked the committee to require the Department of Environmental Services to compile an inventory of open and closed landfills statewide and to provide basic information — addresses, acreage and approximate setbacks from homes, water bodies and airports — to help ensure the state considers reuse or expansion of previously permitted disposal sites before permitting greenfield landfills.

Sponsors argued the measure would reduce the risk of siting major new landfill capacity next to sensitive lakes and communities by forcing an initial, records-based review of existing opportunities. Multiple witnesses in favor said the approach is a practical first step and noted that data for many closed sites are already publicly available on DES or federal datasets.

DES officials told the committee the agency can compile basic lists from existing files and public data, but cautioned that an assessment as written — which the bill describes as evaluating each site for compliance with all siting criteria — would require site visits, hydrogeologic work and substantial staff and consultant time because many older municipal landfills predate modern rules. DES supplied a fiscal estimate describing workload implications should the bill require on-the-ground technical determinations for hundreds of sites.

Industry witnesses said they generally prefer expansions of well-sited, permitted landfills to entirely new greenfield sites and supported the idea of a records-based inventory; they emphasized, however, that private ownership and local land use considerations will affect whether an identified site is realistically available. Committee members and DES staff agreed to refine the bill to narrow required deliverables (for example, a records-based list with readily available fields) and to consider whether municipal owners would be asked to provide updated parcel boundaries or consent.