After delaying a vote on proposed landfill methane regulations by four months, a Colorado board has OK’d a compromise plan that will require more operators of dumps to install gas-control systems but also will put state regulators on the clock to approve or deny permitting for the systems.
The regulations are the state’s first effort to try to reduce methane emissions caused by decomposition of organic waste from landfills — facilities that are the state’s third-largest producer of that particular greenhouse gas. The rules are expected to cut 12.53 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050, which roughly the same emissions produced by cars burning 1.41 billion gallons of gas, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment noted.
But achieving the goal won’t come cheaply, as emissions cuts will come from installation of new equipment and a substantial increase in the monitoring of landfills that CDPHE has estimated will cost $209.6 million — a total that landfill operators peg as being too low. And when environmental advocates and waste specialists remained far apart on the technical and economic feasibility of the proposal after a two-day hearing in August, members of the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission paused the rulemaking for four months to see if the two sides and state regulators could work out a deal.
Negotiations produce agreement
That sojourn allowed the main parties involved to craft a plan that nearly doubles the number of facilities required to install gas collection and control systems that gather the underground methane emissions and burn them off via flares, from 13 to 32. It also requires that operators monitor surface emissions at an interval of every 25 feet rather than the current standard of 100 feet, and those operators must phase out open flares in favor more expensive enclosed flares unless they can prove the latter option is infeasible.
But municipal landfills will get a three-year delay in having to enforce the rules — until 2029, in most cases — and landfill operators who go four consecutive quarterly monitoring periods without finding excessive emissions can revert from 25-foot to 100-foot spacing. And if CDPHE regulators do not disapprove or request more information on design plans for GCCS systems within 90 days of their submission, facilities can proceed with installation as if they’re approved — a key concession at a time when air-quality permitting can take a year-and-a-half.
Following the AQCC’s unanimous approval of the new regulations on Thursday, both operators and environmental advocates offered statements indicating that while they may have wanted some different outcomes, they are pleased to be moving ahead.
Landfill rules could boost health, air quality
“Reducing our environmental footprint is a top priority at WM, and we have been engaged in the development of landfill gas emissions modeling, measurement and sustainable reuse for over a decade, collaborating with regulatory agencies, academia and other organizations to generate solutions grounded in sound science,” said a statement from WM, the refuse and recycling giant formerly known as Waste Management. “We are proud to have participated with all stakeholders and community groups to reach a compromise that facilitates successful implementation for Colorado. We appreciate the CDPHE staff for their time and patience in addressing concerns and working diligently to establish an acceptable and more balanced rule.”
Environmental groups lauded the rule, which will go into effect over the next year, for going beyond existing federal regulations to require more leak-detection monitoring and phasing out open flares, despite arguments that the cost of that move would exceed returns. However, a coalition of groups also said in a statement that they hope commissioners will consider strengthening requirements for landfills to use biocovers to filter emissions in the future and that they hope officials can further incentivize composting and waste diversion from landfills.
“Quickly and significantly reducing methane from the waste sector — the world’s third-largest emitter of anthropogenic methane — is critical for tackling climate change and improving public health,” said Mary Sasso, attorney at Clean Air Task Force. “The final rule approved by the commission leverages cost-effective, practical solutions that will reduce methane emissions, like robust and frequent monitoring. While there is still room for improvement, the final rule marks important progress in protecting communities near landfills and advancing Colorado’s climate goals.”
Small cities, counties feel slighted in landfill talks
Methane has been a target of state efforts like the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap 2.0 because it has an outsized impact on climate and causes issues including nervous-system damage and cancer for those in close proximity to substantial emissions. CDPHE officials have estimated that the regulations will save $1.1 billion in societal costs such as treatment of health conditions, even as they acknowledge it also likely will increase landfill tipping fees by an average of $3.66 per household annually statewide.
The one group particularly unhappy with the compromise — in no small part because they said they were left out of negotiations — was cities and counties that operate smaller landfills and must comply once they have 450,000 short tons of waste in place. Several warned that they will have to boost hauling fees to residents substantially, which is likely to result in illegal dumping or even lead them to close landfills and haul their waste further away, which paradoxically will increase transportation-sector emissions.
“Regulations such as this hamper everyone when they need to expand,” said Jeff Scranton, an attorney representing Kiowa County and speaking, he said, for other small counties with limited budgets. “Increased tipping fees will raise costs for low-income families … This can be detrimental to counties, and that is the point that everybody in the public sector has been trying to say in this hearing.”
The new landfill regulations add to the increasing range of sectors upon with the AQCC and other regulatory commissions have adopted rules in the past three years to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve Colorado’s air quality. Those sectors include the oil-and-gas industry, commercial buildings, large manufacturing plants and commercial lawn-and-garden equipment.