After years of back-and-forth, New Hampshire House and Senate find common ground on landfill bill

Proposed changes to the New Hampshire landfill permitting process are on their way to Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s desk after the two chambers of the state Legislature struggled for years to come to an agreement.

The House of Representatives approved the Senate’s amendment to a bill that would establish a landfill Site Evaluation Committee on Thursday. House Bill 707‘s next stop is the desk of Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who said in a statement she planned to sign it into law.

The bill would create a committee to consider proposals for new landfills and their effects on human health, the environment, the local economy, and more. It represents “seven years of intensive work of many people to achieve much needed and long overdue reform of how landfills are sited in our state,” Rep. Judy Aron, an Acworth Republican, said on the House floor Thursday.

The committee would consider a wider range of “positive and negative community impacts” than are currently taken up in the siting process, she said, including input from locals, scientists, and the waste management industry. Proponents said it would also allow municipalities to regulate landfills with local zoning rules. 

HB 707 was the only one of numerous waste reform proposals introduced this session by House members to emerge from the Senate. It contains some language from previous House proposals, Aron said, and is backed by North Country groups that have advocated for local control in the landfill siting process, like the North Country Alliance for Balanced Change.

“It’s a solid bill with support from many stakeholders,” she said. 

The House approved a motion to concur with the Senate by voice vote.