HB 1429 – AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE
18Mar2008… 0757h
2008 SESSION
08/03
HOUSE BILL 1429
AN ACT relative to private landfills.
SPONSORS: Rep. McLeod, Graf 2; Rep. Tupper, Merr 6
COMMITTEE: Environment and Agriculture
This bill:
I. Requires private landfills making material modifications to existing landfills to receive a permit.
II. Requires the department of environmental services to facilitate the creator of host community agreements.
III. Establishes a commission to study solid waste management and reduction.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
18Mar2008… 0757h
08-2149
08/03
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Eight
AN ACT relative to private landfills.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Paragraph; Private Landfills; Permit Required. Amend RSA 149-M:9 by inserting after paragraph XIV the following new paragraph:
XV. A privately owned landfill shall be required to conduct a pre-modification review prior to commencement of construction of any material modification to any existing privately owned landfill. The review shall be sufficient to allow the commissioner to make determinations that the proposed construction or modification will not cause or contribute to a failure to attain or maintain any public benefits required by RSA 149-M:11. Prior to commencement of construction or modification, the applicant shall submit the required information to the commissioner. No facility may materially modify a landfill without obtaining a modification permit from the department. The commissioner’s review of the submitted information shall be no less stringent than a review of an initial permit application, and shall require that no permit shall be issued for modifications unless the facility meets all the requirements for review and for initially obtaining a permit under this section. For the purposes of this paragraph, a “material modification” is either a change in location for previously permitted capacity or a material change in the facts or circumstance upon which the public benefit determination was made.
2 Commission Established. RSA 149-M:2 set a goal of 40 percent solid waste diversion by 2000 and RSA 149-M:3 established a hierarchy of solid waste management preferred methods for the state: source reduction; recycling and reuse; composting; waste-to-energy technologies; incineration without resource recovery; and landfilling. The general court finds that the, state has not attained the 40 percent diversion goal and has failed to achieve positive gains in limiting landfilling. In an effort to guide the department of environmental services to achieve these solid waste management goals and ensure that the state has sufficient capacity for its own solid waste needs, there is hereby established a commission to study solid waste management and reduction.
3 Membership and Compensation.
I. The commission shall consist of the following members:
(a) Three members of the house of representatives, appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives.
(b) Three members of the senate, appointed by the president of the senate.
(c) The commissioner of the department of environmental services, or designee.
(d) The director of the office of energy and planning, or designee.
(e) A representative of the private solid waste industry, appointed by the governor.
(f) A representative of a municipal solid waste facility, appointed by the New Hampshire Municipal Association.
(g) One member representing the recycling industry, appointed by the governor.
II. Legislative members of the commission shall receive mileage at the legislative rate when attending to the duties of the commission. Non-legislative members shall receive no compensation.
4 Chairperson; Quorum. The members of the commission shall elect a chairperson and vice-chairperson from among the members. The first meeting of the commission shall be called by the first-named house member. The first meeting of the commission shall be held within 45 days of the effective date of this section. Seven members of the commission shall constitute a quorum at least 4 of whom shall be members of the general court.
5 Duties. The commission shall:
I. Review current solid waste capacity needs and availability and estimates of capacity needs and availability for the next 20 years.
II. Investigate the resources needed to assist municipalities and businesses in diverting greater amounts of the waste stream from disposal in landfills and incinerators, with the goal of preserving disposal capacity in New Hampshire.
III. Review the current distribution of capacity in New Hampshire in terms of the state’s demographics.
IV. Review and propose changes, if necessary, to the solid waste permitting requirements of the department of environmental services.
V. Investigate host community agreements and regional municipal agreements to facilitate development of disposal capacity.
VI. Make recommendations for a framework that better facilitates solid waste planning management, reduction, and permitting in New Hampshire.
6 Report. The commissioner shall report its findings and any recommendations for proposed legislation to the speaker of the house of representatives, the president of the senate, the house clerk, the senate clerk, the governor, and the state library on or before November 1, 2008.
7 Definitions; Host Community Agreement. Amend RSA 149-M:4, X-a to read as follows:
X-a. “Host community agreement” means a written, legally binding agreement between the owner or operator of a privately owned solid waste facility and the town in which the privately owned solid waste facility is located, governing the operation, location, development, or expansion of the privately owned solid waste facility.
X-b. “Incinerator” means a facility which employs a method of using controlled thermal combustion, including flame combustion, to thermally break down waste or other materials, including refuse-derived fuel, to an ash residue that contains little or no combustible materials.
8 Modifications; No Permit Issued. Amend RSA 149-M:12 by inserting after paragraph III the following new paragraph:
IV. The department shall work with the host community to facilitate the creation of the host community agreement. The department shall not issue a permit for the modification of an existing privately owned solid waste facility or the construction of a new privately owned solid waste facility unless there is a host community agreement in place.
9 Effective date. This act shall take effect upon its passage.
LBAO
08-2149
Amended 04/07/08
HB 1429 FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to private landfills.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Department of Environmental Services states this bill, as amended by the House (Amendment #2008-0757h), will increase state general fund expenditures by $187,286 in FY 2008, $183,063 in FY 2009, $189,858 in FY 2010, $196,974 in FY 2011, and $204,493 in FY 2012. This bill may increase county and local expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2008 and each year thereafter. This bill will have no fiscal impact on state, county, and local revenue.
METHODOLOGY:
The Department of Environmental Services states this bill requires that any material modification to a private landfill be processed as a new permit application and defines “material modification” such that most or perhaps all landfill modifications would be considered. Currently, there are two privately owned landfills in New Hampshire, Turnkey Landfill in Rochester and NCES Landfill in Bethlehem. The Solid Waste Management Bureau processes an average of seven modifications for these two landfills per year, many of them simple and not requiring as much time and effort as would a new application. Under the provisions of the bill, most of the modifications that have been processed in recent years would have fallen within the proposed definition of “material modification” and therefore would have required increased time and effort to process had the provision been in place. The bill would also require the Department to facilitate the creation of host community agreements for all privately owned solid waste facilities, of which the Department estimates there are approximately 71. Although this bill does not establish any new positions or contain an appropriation, the Department estimates it would need one more full-time permitting engineer (LG 27) due to increased workload, and an attorney (LG 28) to facilitate the negotiation of legal documents. Assuming annual step increases, benefits at 48.3% of salary, and other associated expenses, the Department estimates the annual costs as follows:
FY 2008 FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012
Salaries $99,684 $104,052 $108,634 $113,432 $118,502
Overtime 2,050 2,050 2,050 2,050 2,050
Benefits 49,138 51,247 53,460 55,778 58,227
Current Expense 4,630 4,630 4,630 4,630 4,630
OIT Charge 5,012 5,012 5,012 5,012 5,012
Rent 7,558 7,558 7,558 7,558 7,558
Equipment 10,700 0 0 0 0
Indirect Cost 3,643 3,643 3,643 3,643 3,643
Agency Transfers 500 500 500 500 500
In-State Travel 2,800 2,800 2,800 2,800 2,800
Conferences 1,571 1,571 1,571 1,571 1,571
Total $187,286 $183,063 $189,858 $196,974 $204,493
The Department states the fiscal impact at the local and county level is indeterminable. Approximately 175 New Hampshire municipalities depend on the state’s commercial landfill capacity. Each modification application that is classified as a material modification would require a new public benefit determination. The outcome of such evaluations cannot be determined in advance, but unfavorable determinations could result in facility closure. Further, under the terms of the bill, host communities could effectively refuse to enter into host community agreements with privately owned facilities, thus forcing the facilities to close. Towns that have long-term contracts with privately owned landfills or other solid waste facilities could thereby find themselves without a disposal facility. Loss of landfills and/or incinerators in New Hampshire may require exporting waste long distances to alternative disposal sites, many of which could be out-of-state and require additional expenditures by municipalities. The exact fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time.