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2006 Budget Session
SF 38 will help cities and counties monitor and analyze pollution from open or closed landfills, and will require cities and counties to prepare integrated solid waste management plans.
Wyoming currently has 145 landfills, 52 operating and 93 closed, across the state. Many of the 52 operating landfills are leaking, threatening nearby drinking water wells and human health. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) predicts that of the total 145, at least 65 will eventually leak and contaminate groundwater
The DEQ is required to ensure that municipal solid waste is handled and disposed of safely. Initial regulations in 1975 were primarily focused on ending open burning of trash, controlling litter, reducing scavenging animals, and controlling nuisance factors such as flies and odor.
Although solid waste disposal regulations were significantly strengthened in 1989, landfills were still not required to line their disposal trenches, because of the assumption that Wyoming was too arid for pollutants from landfills to leach into groundwater. The DEQ has since realized that this assumption is not correct. Toxic compounds such as benzene, nickel, lead and mercury leach out of landfills and trickle down through the soil and into groundwater.
While a few of the state's larger and newer landfills operate in lined areas, most landfills across the state are completely unlined. Furthermore, about 80 percent of the state's 145 landfills have inadequate groundwater monitoring systems or lack a monitoring system altogether. The DEQ has estimated it will cost $13.7 million simply to improve groundwater monitoring.
The 2005 Legislature considered a bill that would have funded cleanups for currently leaking landfills, paid for regionalization of landfills, established statewide goals for recycling and reuse, and required local action plans by 2008. The 2005 bill failed because legislators were concerned about its complexity.
This year's bill, SF 38, represented a much smaller start to address the problem. SF 38 created a $7.97 million groundwater monitoring grant program. These grants will be offered to local governments on a 50% matching basis, to be used to monitor and analyze pollution from open or closed landfills. The DEQ will have four years to evaluate all resulting groundwater monitor data and report to the Legislature on how serious the problem is, how much it will cost to clean it up, and how it might be paid for.
SF 38 also required cities and counties to submit integrated solid waste management plans to the DEQ by 2009. The bill appropriated at least $1.3 million for a matching grant program to help local governments fund development of the management plans. Grants will be available at a 50% match for individual city or county plans, or up to a 70% match for plans that include at least two cities or counties.
Two new full time DEQ positions, costing about $320,000, were authorized to implement the program.
The Senate passed SF 38, 29-1, with Sen. Gerald Geis (R-S20, Worland) casting the single NO vote. The House passed the bill, 57-1 (2 excused), with Rep. Ross Dierks (D-H2, Lusk) casting the single NO vote.