When it rains over a landfill, water seeps through the waste, picking up pollutants in the trash and forming a polluted liquid called leachate.

Lawmakers will consider a bill next session that would create broader requirements for leachate management plans in permit applications for new landfills, including adding a new requirement that those plans include details on how to deal with leachate after the landfill closes, according to the Sponsor.

The move comes after several landfills in the state recently had problems handling so-called “garbage juice,” which can contain heavy metals, PFAS and other pollutants, they said Environmental Services Department. Failure to properly manage leachate can pose significant safety and environmental risks.

“So far, this is an issue that has not received nearly the attention it deserves,” said Rep. Nicholas Germana, a Keene Democrat Who is leading the legislation said about leachate management.

This legislation would enshrine requirements for leachate management plans in law and create more stringent requirements. It would include language requiring that, before issuing a permit, DES must make a positive determination that the permit application contains a detailed leachate management plan. Additionally, those applying for a landfill permit would have to demonstrate that their contracts for transporting and processing leachate are legally enforceable.

It’s one of several landfill issues lawmakers plan to address when they meet early next year. Other Invoice inquiries would impose a moratorium on new landfills through 2030, require DES to establish site-specific setback distances for future landfills, and require those applying for permits to submit a report outlining the potential harms and benefits of their proposals. The bills for the next legislative period are still in the draft stage.

Advocates say more detailed requirements for dealing with leachate are needed the problems experienced at landfills across the state and the challenges posed by heavy rainfall.

“The existing leachate management regulations essentially cover what happens on the site of the landfill,” said Eliot Wessler, a Whitefield employee resident solid waste advocacy, “but there are virtually no rules about how the leachate is transported off-site and how safe the disposal of…the leachate is, so that’s the origin of it (the bill), you know, to strengthen the state rules.”

He added: “We hope that there will be draft legislation to cover leachate management at existing landfill sites, but at least at the edge of any new landfill site there should be much more consideration given to how the leachate will be managed as it is on site stored, but most importantly, how it is removed from the site and how it is treated before it enters our ecosystem.”

The state currently requires landfills to have at least two leachate disposal sites; Estimate how much leachate they will generate. and describe how leachate is handled at the landfill before it is moved elsewhere for disposal, according to DES. They must also have procedures in place to reduce seepage levels to one foot or less within a week of a 100-year storm event. The regulations also provide details of on-site leachate management systems.

“As part of the facility’s operating plan,” DES said in a statement, “the leachate management plan must contain sufficient detail to allow the certified operator and other trained facility personnel to operate the facility in accordance with RSA 149-M, the facility’s permit.” , and the solid waste rules without further explanation or guidance.”

DES Error found to properly manage leachate at several landfills across the state this year. One facility that has drawn particular attention is the Bethlehem landfill, operated by Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems, which failed hundreds of times in a year to maintain leachate at required levels and required reporting, data and submit investigations to the state.

The Bethlehem landfill has experienced leachate levels above 12 inches hundreds of times, the maximum level the state requires landfills to maintain except during certain heavy rain events. At one time, the seepage depth was 116 inches, nearly 10 times greater than it should have been under state requirements.

At the forefront of the state’s solid waste discussions is Casella’s attempt to build another landfill in the northern part of the state, just a half-mile from a pristine lake. The pending permit applications have also obscured DES’s proposed updates to the state’s landfill regulations that a group of lawmakers recently sent to the department back to work To.

Although the Bethlehem landfill was more numerous than others in terms of the amount of violations, it was not the only facility where DES found problems with leachate.

A municipal landfill in Lebanon experienced leachate releases in 13 areas, including five releases off-site and into the environment. It did not immediately notify DES as required and at least some of the issues were not addressed in a “timely manner.” the department said. And in Rochester, a landfill operated by Waste Management of New Hampshire experienced at least 13 leachate discharges between December 2022 and the end of April this year, representing “an ongoing operational problem.” DES wrote in May.

Tom Tower, vice president of the North Country Alliance for Balanced Change, a citizens group that has advocated against Casella’s new landfill and for solid waste reform, said heavy rain events would place greater strain on landfills, citing Bethlehem in particular.

“We have to be prepared not only for what … is considered normal, but also for what is considered something extreme of the goalposts,” Tower said of the weather events, “because we have seen what can happen when that happens . “It’s raining so excessively and it doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon.”

Germana — who said he expects the bill to attract a bipartisan group of sponsors — made a similar point.

“As we experience these types of storms and floods more frequently every 50 or 100 years, our landfills across New England are just not really equipped to handle the creation of such large amounts of leachate so quickly,” he said.

The goal of this legislation is to ensure that landfill operators are adequately prepared, Germana said.

“Instead of requiring some sort of micromanaging, top-down approach,” Germana said, “it tells these operators that you need to think about all of these things in advance and come up with a comprehensive plan to deal with them.”