§ 38 §1310-E-1 — Closure of landfills

Notwithstanding closure schedules previously established by rule, unlicensed and licensed open-municipal solid waste landfills that have not been closed must be closed in accordance with the schedule established by federal law or rule; state law or rule; schedules of compliance; consent agreements; enforcement orders; or license conditions. Those landfills must be closed in accordance with one of the following procedures.
1.
Regulation procedure.
This procedure involves the submission of a closure plan and the implementation of the closure plan as approved by the department in accordance with landfill closure standards included in rules adopted pursuant to section 1304. This closure process is required of all licensed municipal solid waste landfills and may be otherwise initiated in one of 3 ways:
2.
Reduced closure procedure.
To achieve compliance with this section, a municipality has the option to close its landfill, in accordance with a reduced procedure as established by this subsection, except when:
3.
Alternative closure procedure.
A municipality that determines that it owns or operates a landfill that by the terms of subsection 2, paragraph B is not automatically eligible for the reduced closure option must notify the department in writing of that circumstance within 60 days of making the determination and the notification must be considered by the department as a request for permission to close the landfill in accordance with the closure standards established by subsection 2. Upon receipt of the notification and after further evaluating the circumstances of the landfill as may be necessary, the department must notify the municipality in writing that permission is granted to close the landfill in accordance with the standards established in subsection 2, or that permission is granted to close the landfill in accordance with the standards of subsection 2 and any reasonable additional closure or remediation standards that the department may require that are related to the identified characteristics that cause the landfill to not be automatically eligible for the reduced closure option.
4.
Subsequent landfill closure activity.
Any municipality that closes a landfill pursuant to subsection 1, 2 or 3 and that inspects, monitors and maintains the closure measures as required under subsection 6 is entitled to an assurance from the department that the municipality has met its closure obligations and that no further closure action other than inspection, monitoring and maintenance is required of the municipality by the department with regard to that landfill unless one or more of the following circumstances arises:
5.
Existing closure procedures.
The closure procedures established in this section do not override or impair closure procedures established prior to the effective date of this section pursuant to a legally binding consent agreement, license condition, enforcement order or other form of contract between a municipality and that department that was executed prior to the effective date of this section.
6.
Post-closure maintenance.
A municipality that closes a landfill pursuant to subsection 1, 2 or 3 shall inspect, monitor and maintain the closure measures required under those subsections as necessary to ensure that the closure remains effective.

Legislative History

PL 1993, c. 732, §C12 (NEW). PL 1995, c. 502, §E32 (AMD). PL 1999, c. 556, §§37,38 (AMD). PL 2007, c. 655, §§7, 8 (AMD).