New Hampshire House passes bill targeting proposed landfill

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has passed a bill that would require new landfills to be owned by the state or its political subdivisions but managed by a private contractor, WMUR reports. The bill would prohibit any future landfills from being privately owned, emphasizing a public-private model where the government would own any new landfill property with a private company handling operations.

The bill is aimed at keeping out-of-state trash out of New Hampshire’s landfills. While existing landfills—including four publicly owned and two private—would not be impacted by the proposed legislation, opponents of the bill say it unfairly targets the landfill project Rutland, Vermont-based waste and recycling firm Casella Waste Systems Inc. has been trying to move forward in the face of local opposition.

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Casella has applied for a landfill permit for land near Forest Lake State Park in Dalton. Rep. Judy Aron, R-South Acworth, opposed the bill, saying it would appear to attempt to shut down the application for the Dalton landfill.

“Banning private ownership of landfills is just not business friendly,” says Aron, who chairs the House Environment and Agriculture Committee.

For a few years now, a consistent bipartisan majority of the house has approved interventions to address concerns over the proposed Forest Lake landfill, only to see most of the bills die in the state Senate, WMUR reports.