On March 15 or 16, the NH House of Representatives will vote on HB 1454 which establishes a science-based setback for landfills from state bodies of water. In summary: scientific studies must show, prior to landfill permitting, that any landfill leak would not reach a nearby body of water for at least 5 years. This will provide officials time to proactively address such issues. Today’s setback of just 200′ is arbitrary and has resulted in reactive mitigation at sites such as the NCES landfill in Bethlehem at the Ammonoosuc River.
We’re asking our supporters and all supporters of NH clean lakes, rivers and wetlands to write their state representatives a personal note and ask them to support this bill. To determine your state rep, visit this page to search for them by town, then click their link to see their e-mail, physical address and phone numbers. Supporters who live outside of NH can write the representatives for their favorite towns or those they visit regularly.
E-mailed letters should be sent no later than Monday evening, March 14. Please be sure to sign your letter with your full name and town of residence. Along with stating your personal concerns about safe water in NH, feel free to use any of the points below.
- HB 1454 is a bill that provides a science-based, site-specific setback distance to provide urgently needed protection for water bodies including lakes, rivers and drinking water supplies from any new landfill development.
- HB 1454 remedies the current, arbitrary, one size fits all 200-foot setback regulation that has no foundation in hydrogeology.
- Setback distances are meant to provide the necessary protection for a landfill leak to be detected, a remediation plan designed, approved and implemented before the contamination reaches a water body.
- NH’s soil and bedrock conditions vary greatly across the state and thus HB 1454 ensures setback distances are scientifically determined to provide the site-specific protections necessary.
- At the Mt. Carberry landfill in Success, we have an excellent example of a landfill sited where the clay soil and bedrock is very protective of the nearby Androscoggin River. That’s the type of site we want, if we ever need another NH landfill, not one with a porous soil structure and fractured bedrock that will imperil nearby waters.
- HB 1454 is a smart, simple, urgently needed bill that protects some of the state’s most valuable natural resources at no cost to taxpayers. Please vote to pass HB 1454.
Thank you for your support, every voice makes a difference!