Statewide Landfill Rules
Stay Tuned!
Although TCE and others stopped the use of toxic waste as alternative daily cover on Port Arthur's landfill in Feb. 2008, the TCEQ is fast tracking new rules on daily cover which may loosen the standards. Click here to read news article on this issue.
The TCEQ has issued its newest report on landfill trends and capacity. Click here to download it.
The State Environmental Agency Falls Short in its Re-write of the Chapter 305/330 Rules on How Changes in Trash Permits are Handled
Unlike other polluting facilities and even industrial hazardous waste facilities, MSW permits currently do not have any term limits. Even though environmental and landfill neighbor groups urged the state environmental agency to set term limits, they refused to do so. Term limits (or a regular permit review process) would allow the state agency and the public to take a comprehensive look at a facility's permit and potentially upgrade it.
A permit amendment is the only time most permits are comprehensively reviewed by staff and other concerned parties. The new rules, passed on May 7, 2008, create "limited" major amendments which will only open up the affected areas of the permit for review. This is the most important change - which will result in less oversight of landfills. The new rule also make changes in what changes can be done through the modification process (which does not open up the permit for review), and which modifications will require notice to the community and which will not.
Some Good Points of the New Rules
1. Public notice and public participation will be expanded, but not as much as landfill watchdogs want.
- New or expanding trash facilities will have to post signs around their property to alert the community that there is an application pending.
- The signs will have a toll-free number to call for more information and a URL for the website where the application can be found. (Here's the TCEQ website for that info.)
- If the local area has a large number of non-English speakers, the signs will be bi-lingual.
- The rules require that mailed notices be sent to property-owners within one-quarter mile, up from 500 feet - an additional 320 feet which is not enough.
- The mailed notices will also have the URL to see the application online.
2. Landfills will no longer be able to get a one-time 10-foot height increase with a modification process.
Some Other Problems with the New Rules
1. The TCEQ failed to clarify all the questions as to how many and which entities are required to submit the applications for a permit and who is ultimately responsible for the operations of a facility. The TCEQ Commissioners added some language, but it still does not settle the controversy created by TCEQ staff to require that "operators" be listed on a permit if the "owner" doesn't run the facility.
2. Trash facilities are explicitly allowed to use a "Temporary Authorization" for minor and even major changes in operation - and there are still no notice requirements before or after the fact.
3. Neighbors will only be notified of the transfer of ownership of a trash facility AFTER the transfer has taken place.
4. If a trash facility want to make changes to provisions that were agreed to in settlements with neighbors (that are incorporated in the "Special Provisions" of the permit), it is unclear whether a full or limited major amendment will be required.
Permits for most major facilities regulated by the TCEQ have term limits, including Industrial Hazardous Waste facilities which have 10-year term limits. Thirty-eight other states require some sort of term limit for landfills. Term limits would create a mechanism for periodic TCEQ staff review and public participation.
Some landfills have so much capacity compared to their intake that it will take decades, centuries or thousands of years to fill up - without a regular review of the permit. One landfill permit could last for more than 7700 years. In fact, 83 of the 188 active landfills in Texas have 50 years or more to fill up their site at present intake rates. Download the list here. Without effective permit reviews or time limits, landfills could operate for decades, centuries or even millenia without thorough oversight.
Here is a chart summarizing of the status of Texas landfills, number of recent complaints and violations and an explanation of the chart information.
On January 26, 2005, the TCEQ commissioners heard arguments regarding the process used to expand the old City of Weatherford landfill which is now owned and run by IESI a private company. IESI requested several major changes (including upgrading the landfill to Subtitle D[1] standards and a lateral expansion) to be allowed as a permit modification, which was contested by surrounding property owners and Texas Campaign for the Environment, TCEQ’s Office of Public Interest Counsel, and Texas Disposal Systems (TDS). These kinds of changes generally required a permit amendment.
At the January hearing, the TCEQ Commissioners learned that the Weatherford landfill permit had not been subject to full review since 1987. The public had not had an opportunity to a contested case hearing since that time, although the permit had been modified numerous times. The landfill was privatized by IESI in 2003 and became a regional landfill. During this time the landfill doubled in size and went from 10 to 100 trucks/day, causing $29,000 damage to county roads, according to Weatherford County Commissioners.
All three TCEQ Commissioners at the time recognized that significant changes had occurred at the Weatherford landfill since 1987, and agreed that too many landfill operators stack multiple changes through the permit modification process and effectively cut the public out of the process. However, the Commissioners allowed the landfill expansion through the permit modification after the neighbors and TCE settled with IESI, with the proviso (agreed to by IESI) that this case should not be seen as setting a precedent for expansions through the modification process. (The approval of the expansion is being challenged by Texas Disposal Systems in state court, but has proceeded
Landfill Standards in Chapter 330 Adopted
TCE was very active in mobilizing efforts to improve the Chapter 330 rules which affected a wide range of issues related to various municipal solid waste issues. The revise rules were adopted on March 1, 2006. Click here for more information.
Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE) Pushes for Changes.
Since 2003, TCE has organized communities living near problematic landfills, to stand up and fight to improve the standards. In March 2004, TCE and landfill neighbors succeeded in pushing back an industry attempt to weaken the language in Site Operating Plans (the part of a landfill permit that details how the operator will control problems such as windblown waste and odors) for landfills. As a result, the TCEQ has begun to take a closer look at landfills and their problems.
[1] Subtitle D refers to the standards passed at the federal level which were implemented with rules in Texas in 1993. The standards required liners, as well as groundwater and landfill gas monitors.
Campaign Press
Trashing the Trash Rules (Austin Chronicle)
Landfill regulations get tougher (News 8 Austin)
State environmental commission passes new landfill rules (Austin American Statesman)
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