Colorado air quality regulators on Thursday passed new controls on methane from landfills, a top source of greenhouse gases, ending a months-long debate over how strict the regulations should be.
The regulations approved by the Air Quality Control Commission hand state landfill operators — cities, counties and private companies — a to-do list ranging from installing gas-collection systems to satellite monitoring to enclosing flares.
Environmental groups wanted more and say earlier drafts of the rules were tougher. But they still call the new protections a victory that shows Colorado is willing to go beyond a regulation-averse federal government to promote clean air and attack climate change.
“This is a monumental moment for Colorado communities to be further protected from hazardous emissions coming from our landfills and flowing into our communities,” said Brian Loma, hazardous materials and waste diversion advocate with GreenLatinos, in a release from a coalition of nonprofit environment advocates. “Destroying these emissions will lead to improved health conditions and lowered health care costs for many Colorado communities.”
The nonprofit environmental law advocate Earthjustice hedged its praise, but endorsed the final rules. “The initial proposed rule would have been the strongest in the nation, but over time and after arguments from both sides, the division weakened the draft rule. In order to preserve the most important elements of the rule, the parties spent hours meeting to find agreement on the best path forward,” Earthjustice said.
Earthjustice and others wanted more regulation of emissions from PFAS “forever chemicals” at landfills, and tighter monitoring. Another change the air pollution division staff made earlier this year was allowing publicly-owned landfills three years to implement changes, said Alexandra Schluntz, senior Earthjustice attorney in Colorado. Still, most of the negotiated revisions were technical, Schluntz said, “without undermining the important emission reductions that this rule will achieve.”
Commissioners and state health officials called the rules a hard-won compromise after months of collaboration.
“This new standard will significantly reduce methane emissions using proven technologies and climate-smart practices,” said Air Pollution Control Division director Michael Ogletree. “Strong actions like this help address climate change while protecting our environment, public health, and state economy.”
Representatives of landfill operators continued to object at Thursday’s final hearing — delayed from a planned August vote to give interest groups more time to weigh in — that the rules will impose exorbitant costs on the owners.
“When you have regulations like this, you also are spending money that counties need for other services or expansion,” said Jeff Scranton, Kiowa County’s landfill supervisor.
One commissioner, part of the nine-member group that approved the rules 6 to 0 with a few recusals, suggested state agencies should find money to help towns and counties implement the landfill changes as a complement to the stricter mandates.
Air pollution control staff say the regulation will apply to as many as 32 of Colorado’s 82 municipal landfills. Eleven of the larger city or county landfills already follow similar federal methane controls, which have already worked to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in recent years, the state added.
Because methane is considered a supercharged contributor to climate change, trapping more heat on Earth than carbon dioxide, the state expects the controls to have a big impact. The rules could cut up to 12.53 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050, burning nearly 1.41 billion gallons of gasoline, the state said.
Elements of the new “Regulation 31” include:
- Requiring potentially dozens of additional landfills to install methane gathering and control systems, beyond the number affected by federal rules.
- Phasing out open flaring of methane produced from the waste. Enclosed flares allow for better monitoring of effectiveness.
- Additional monitoring, including with more modern tools such as satellite imaging of emissions.
- Requiring biofilters such as layers of absorbent material at landfills that disconnect flaring devices.
“Landfills are a major source of methane and harmful co-pollutants that can trigger asthma and other respiratory conditions in kids,” said Laurie Anderson, Colorado field organizer at Moms Clean Air Force. “These new rules will improve air quality and cut climate-warming pollution, helping us achieve the clean air and safe climate our children deserve – while demonstrating that Colorado is committed to safeguarding both for generations to come.”