Senate perfects bill to study and start cleanup of 29 abandoned landfill sites, directs 10% of tipping fees to special fund

Senator from Franklin moved to perfect a substitute bill that would authorize the state to begin assessing and addressing abandoned solid-waste disposal areas and to reserve a dedicated portion of state tipping fees to pay for that work. The sponsor described 29 abandoned landfill sites with leaking leachate and said the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) currently lacks statutory authority and dedicated funding to investigate and remediate sites without identifiable owners.

The bill would reserve 10% of state-collected tipping fees for a DNR special fund "for the purpose of administering the provisions... relating to assessment, investigation, testing, remediation, and managing of abandoned solid waste disposal areas," the sponsor said, adding the measure is intended to allow initial environmental studies and to unlock other funding options later. "This is a multi part process... I anticipate this would generate somewhere in the neighborhood of about [the sponsor's estimate was unclear on the record]," the sponsor said, acknowledging the fiscal estimate at committee and floor hearings had uncertainty.

Sponsor also said the measure keeps the state's 22 local solid waste management districts intact rather than consolidating them, and clarifies seller disclosure requirements so that sellers must provide a dated, written notice early in negotiations when a property contains a permitted or unpermitted disposal site. "I actually had one of the people that purchased one of these properties and they were never given any direct notification," the sponsor said, explaining the disclosure change was intended to protect buyers and sellers.

Senators asked technical questions during floor colloquy about the mechanics of the tipping-fee transfer, whether the reserved money would return to districts after the work is complete, and how DNR would exercise new statutory authority when no legally responsible owner exists. The sponsor said the 10% would go to DNR for assessment and cleanup and that, after the program's purpose is completed, the share would revert to prior allocations.

After extended discussion and multiple inquiries about scope, public input, and implementation, the sponsor moved to declare the substitute perfected; the chamber declared the bill perfected and ordered it printed. The sponsor also asked for an interim committee to continue stakeholder engagement and to refine longer-term solutions.

Next steps: the bill was perfected and ordered printed; further committee work and drafting was planned during the interim as the sponsor and colleagues continue stakeholder outreach and technical drafting.