New Hampshire lawmakers introduce leachate management bill

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced House Bill 566 (H.B. 566) to require permit applicants to think harder about how they’ll manage leachate in landfills, including after the closure of their proposed facilities, the New Hampshire Bulletin reports.

The bill seeks to create more comprehensive requirements for leachate management. It would require permit applications for new landfills to contain a detailed plan for leachate management, including a narrative of how leachate will be collected and stored on-site, how it will be transported off-site and the location and type of disposal processing.

It would also require applicants to plan for leachate management in the post-closure life of their proposed landfills, and would put the requirement for leachate plans into state law, rather than existing only in the agency’s rules.

Failures at several landfills in New Hampshire to properly manage leachate, including a Bethlehem, New Hampshire, landfill managed by Casella Waste Systems Inc., Rutland, Vermont, that racked up hundreds of violations within a year, brought legislative attention to the issue, reports the Bulletin.

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Leachate is typically trucked or piped to wastewater treatment facilities, which means its potential impact on public health and the environment isn’t confined to landfills. The bill’s advocates have raised concerns about the spread of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which have been linked to serious health effects including some cancers.

Addressing leachate management has been made more pressing by frequent and intense storm events, says Rep. Nicholas Germana, the Democrat leading the bill. Landfills are required by the state to keep leachate levels below 1 foot on their liners, a task made more difficult by extreme rainfall.

The state already requires landfills to make plans around the management of leachate. Operators must have at least two locations for leachate disposal, estimate how much leachate they will generate and describe how leachate will be handled at the landfill before being shipped somewhere else for disposal, according to the Department of Environmental Services. They must also have procedures in place to bring down leachate levels to a foot or lower within a week of a 100-year storm event. Regulations also include details about on-site leachate management systems.

Natch Greyes, vice president of public policy for the Business & Industry Association, says the group opposes the bill and questions whether it is necessary considering existing regulations on the issue.

“I’m not sure what this legislation adds to the regulatory framework, other than to freeze it in place,” Greyes tells the New Hampshire Bulletin.