Oregon passes bill to require landfill to expand methane monitoring

A bill passed by Oregon lawmakers this month will require the Coffin Butte Landfill in Benton County to expand its system for monitoring methane releases, OBP reports.

Lawmakers have passed Senate Bill 726, which, once signed by Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, will require the landfill to regulate methane emissions using advanced technology like drones, planes or satellites.

When first drafted, the bill applied to all landfills in Oregon, but landfill operators and some local governments opposed the far-reaching legislation. Lawmakers narrowed the bill to target one landfill that gets media attention.

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Like most municipal solid waste landfills in Oregon, Coffin Butte uses handheld devices to record methane leaks as part of its federally required emissions monitoring. During the bill’s public hearings, landfill operators argued this technology was not precise enough, not readily available and too expensive.

More than two dozen counties send their waste to the 178-acre Coffin Butte Landfill north of Corvallis. Republic Services, Pheonix, owns and operates the landfill and has asked the county for a land-use permit so it could expand.

Meanwhile, according to the report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the landfill for excessive methane leaks.

“Coffin Butte has taken immediate action to address any methane exceedances that it detected, or that the EPA identified during its inspections,” Republic Services senior manager Melissa Quillard told OBP in a statement.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, says she sees the bill as an opportunity to pilot a new way to monitor landfill pollution, and a launching point for future legislation.