With the publication of new landfill rules, landfill management is shifting from periodic compliance using decades-old technology to more rigorous methane management using the newest monitoring technologies. Landfill operations must quantify emissions, install new or upgrade existing gas control systems, monitor using ground-based and remote methods, make repairs more quickly, and maintain audit-ready records.
SCS Engineers, North America’s most recognized landfill service provider, publishes technical bulletins that summarize each rulemaking to highlight the most significant factors that will affect landfill operators.
You will find these publications below, along with our recommendations for identifying and addressing the requirements a landfill must meet to comply with the new standards. By clicking the underlined jurisdiction, you will be directed to more detailed information on the rules.
If you have not already done so, SCS recommends a gap analysis to outline the operational, monitoring, design/construction, and technological changes landfill operators face. The results will support a compliance roadmap: emissions modeling, GCCS capacity review, necessary system upgrades, corrective actions, remote monitoring readiness, leak response staffing, digital recordkeeping, capital budgeting, and site-specific deadlines by jurisdiction.
California: Prepare for faster plume response, including investigation and repair of methane plumes detected by CARB-approved remote sensing technologies, and required monitoring of unsafe-to-walk areas using new technologies.
Maintain rapid repair workflows: for example, the current LMR requires that exceedances be remediated and re-monitored within 10 calendar days, whereas the new standard requires corrective action to begin within 3 calendar days.
Verify that all control devices can meet the 99% methane destruction efficiency standard, with annual source testing and recordkeeping, not just flares.
Plan for increased stringency in almost every aspect of the new rule.
Colorado: Align landfill compliance programs with Regulation 31, Control of Methane Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste Landfills, effective February 14, 2026.
Prepare for waste-in-place/GCCS determinations, gas collection and control requirements, surface emissions monitoring, remote methane monitoring, cover requirements, recordkeeping/reporting, and test-method compliance.
Canada: Determine applicability, calculate annual methane generation with ECCC’s Landfill Methane Modelling Tool, and prepare Methane Generation Assessment Reports; additional requirements apply to emissions above 664 tonnes/year for open landfills and 1,000 tonnes/year for closed landfills.
Plan for new gas systems or upgrades to existing systems by the deadline: 2028 for ≥1,000 tonnes/year with existing recovery systems; 2029 for ≥1,000 tonnes/year without recovery systems; and 2035 for 664–1,000 tonnes/year sites.
States Actively Considering or Developing New Rules
Across North America, we urge operators to build a compliance roadmap now. Stricter rules are in effect in Canada, Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, and Maryland. They are under consideration in many more states, including Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
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