Virginia Waste Management Board

November 28, 2022

UPDATE

UPDATE 4-29-25: the Governor’s office put a hold on Amendment 9, and the Waste Management Board has announced its intention to formally withdraw Amendment 9 (see Agenda Item 4 and Tab C).

The Virginia Waste Management Board (Board) approved the final action, Amendment 9, to the Virginia Solid Waste Management Regulations (VSWMR) at its Board meeting on October 28, 2022. Since that approval, the final regulation has been under executive review. The Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources review resulted in a request to withdraw the final regulation, as the discretionary changes are unnecessary and do not further protect public health nor the environment (see attached memo).

Amendment 9 included provisions related to 1) landfill siting and setbacks, 2) landfill operations, 3) landfill gas monitoring, 4) landfill groundwater monitoring, 5) open burning exemptions, and 6) clarified other requirements. Landfill siting and setbacks as well as open burning exemptions can both be addressed by local governments exercising their authority, such as zoning and land use controls and the solid waste management planning process. Landfill operations and landfill gas monitoring can both be addressed by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) through the existing solid waste management permitting process. The VSWMR provisions in 9VAC20-81-430 already authorize DEQ to include conditions that are necessary to protect public health or the environment, or to ensure compliance with the VSWMR. For example, DEQ has already included the topographic survey requirements contemplated by Amendment 9 into existing landfill permits where necessary on a case-by-case basis. Amendment 9 also included landfill groundwater monitoring requirements, including a placeholder for emerging contaminants with pending Maximum Containment Levels (MCLs). As placeholders, further amendments would have been required to fully operationalize these provisions. In addition, since Amendment 9 was contemplated, legislation has been enacted in Virginia to address PFAS, including legislation that provides for monitoring at landfills in watersheds that provide source water for drinking water facilities that have measured MCL exceedances for PFAS in finished drinking water.

In its October 28, 2022, meeting, the Virginia Waste Management Board voted to adopt changes to the Virginia Solid Waste Management Regulations known as Amendment 9. Amendment 9 was initiated several years ago, and the amendments address issues that have arisen since the previous amendment. The changes involve updated standards for siting, operation, and monitoring of landfills as well as revising exemptions for open burning of waste. Following adoption by the Board, the amendment is now undergoing Executive Branch Review.

Some of the key changes that are part of this amendment include the following:

• • Changes to the siting requirements for new and expanded waste management facilities, including increasing the minimum setback (from 50 to 100’) from the waste management boundary to the facility boundary as well as increasing the minimum setback (from 200 to 500’) from the waste management boundary to any residence, school, daycare center, hospital nursing home, or recreational park area.

• • Adding a new requirement that active landfills conduct a periodic topographic survey to provide more accurate information about the landfill, assist with planning, and prevent overfilling. Landfills with a permitted disposal rate of 300 tons per day or less will be required to conduct this survey once every 24 months, while all other active landfills will be required to survey every 12 months.

• • Adding a requirement for weekly cover to be applied at active industrial landfills.

• • Changes to the landfill gas perimeter monitoring requirements, including a new requirement to notify any owners and occupants of occupied structures located within 500 feet of a monitoring point with a methane compliance level exceedance. Landfills would be required to provide written notification within 10 days and also to offer to conduct methane monitoring for the structure.

• • It may be very challenging for some landfills to comply with this requirement since there is no way to know who may occupy a structure at any particular point in time. For example, a shopping center or an office building might be occupied by customers, employees, service technicians, etc.

• • Revisions to landfill groundwater monitoring requirements to include any PFAS compounds and 1,4-dioxane in the event the Board of Health publishes Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for public drinking water systems.

• • Eliminating the allowance that citizens could conduct open burning of their household solid waste on their property if regularly scheduled collection services were unavailable. The amendment would limit the open burning allowance only to vegetative waste, clean wood, and clean paper products.

• • Changes to the regulation to promote compositing activities, such as additional permitting exemptions for certain compositing activities on farms or in conjunction with a public/private event or festival, and elimination of the requirement for certain compost facilities to conduct parasite testing given that past data has indicated that parasites have not posed issues with compost quality.

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About the Authors:

Josh Roth, PE, is a Vice President and Project Director with the Landfill Gas (LFG) Group in the SCS Reston, VA office. He supports LFG engineering projects involving remediation system design, emissions inventories and air permitting, migration and odor control, ambient air sampling and reporting, LFG and CER due diligence projects, GHG emission mitigation and reporting, field sampling and assessments, and general emissions control projects.

Mike Mclaughlin, PE, JD, is SCS Engineers’ Senior Vice President of Environmental Services. He is a licensed engineer and attorney with over 40 years of professional experience providing advice on environmental matters. He is an expert on environmental compliance, remediation, and allocation of response costs. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Virginia State Bar Environmental Law Section, and Budget Officer of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (ABA SEER).