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Committee hears competing landfill bills; sponsors push site‑evaluation committee to bring community impacts into permitting
Summary
Members heard HB 1478 (update DES landfill siting rules) and HB 1189 (create site evaluation committee). Sponsors argued for site‑specific, time‑of‑travel setbacks and public input; DES supported an SEC in principle but warned of procedural/timing and technical issues and suggested clarifying definitions and implementation language.
The committee conducted lengthy hearings on two connected topics: HB 1478, which would require DES to revise landfill siting rules to use site‑specific time‑of‑travel and setbacks to protect drinking water, and HB 1189, which would establish a Solid Waste Site Evaluation Committee (SEC) to evaluate proposed major facilities (>100,000 tons/year) on broad public‑interest grounds.
Representative Kelly Potenza framed HB 1478 as the next step after protracted rulemaking, arguing DES rule drafts were weakened after public comment and that site‑specific hydrogeologic setbacks and modern time‑of‑travel criteria are needed to protect wells, surface water and communities. Potenza described a now‑weakened hydraulic‑conductivity draft that moved from 10^-5 to 10^-3 and flagged a draft rule allowing imported soil to be treated as a barrier for only days of protection.
DES senior staff (Mike Wimsatt, Leah McKenna) said the department would not take a position on the policy but flagged several practical issues: the bill’s proposed 5‑year contaminant travel time test could produce procedural conflicts across multiple DES permit tracks (wetlands, alteration of terrain, solid waste) and might require access to abutting property to measure travel time; DES also said its current rule framework (sentry monitoring wells, detection/investigation before property‑line impacts) can be more protective if applied effectively. Wimsatt advised caution on technical prescriptions (e.g., moving to a blanket 100‑year plus 50% storm design) because overdesign can have unintended operational consequences.
Conservation groups, local advocates and the Forest Society supported HB 1189. Tom Tower and Wayne Morrison said an SEC would add a needed community and economic lens to complement DES’s technical permitting. Conservation Law Foundation counsel Heidi Trimarco circulated a proposed amendment limiting the presence of industry representatives on the SEC and barring employees/contractors of companies that own or have applied to operate facilities. DES said HB 1189 is substantively similar to prior proposals and that the department supports the concept but requested minor definitional changes (e.g., remove ‘‘disposal’’ from a definition that covers processing and transfer facilities).
Next steps: Sponsors and DES will work together on targeted drafting fixes (procedural timing, definitions, storm‑design language, committee composition). The committee asked for a side‑by‑side comparison of the House bill and the Senate language and expected amendment drafts before the next work session.
