The Legislature is coming up the end of its active session, and there are over 1,800 bills that have been introduced. The last floor session for most bills is from April 25th to May 4th, but there has been no significant activity on any solid waste or recycling bills since the last update, and it not anticipated that there will be much further action on most bills by the end of this session. However, the proposed organic stability rule for landfills is progressing and will have hearings in April, and the Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force continues to move forward.

Rules revisions

As part of the recent NR 500 revisions for landfill design and operation, a requirement was included for achieving organic stability in a shorter time frame than what is currently achieved. The proposed rule requires new and expanded landfills to include plans for the stabilization of biodegradable organics, either through diversion of organics, pre-processing of organics, in-situ treatment, or a combination of these approaches. The plans are to be submitted by January 1, 2007 and a DNR advisory workgroup has both provided advice and assistance in developing the proposed rules and put together a list and description of possible strategies for fulfilling this requirement. Approval was obtained from the Natural Resources Board at the February meeting to go to public hearings, with hearings set for April 11th in Eau Claire and April 12th in Waukesha. The web page for the rule is at https://apps4.dhfs.state.wi.us/admrules/public/Rmo?nRmoId=783. The web page for the workgroup is at http://dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/wm/solid/landfill/stability/index.htm.

Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force

The Blue Ribbon Task Force had its last meeting in Menasha at the SCA paper mill on April 5th, with a tour of the mill (which uses only scrap paper to make towels and napkins), and a guest speaker on agricultural plastics. In addition, the economics and institutions workgroup gave a presentation on the framework for looking a both financial and social costs for managing materials through landfilling, recycling, incineration or composting. An example was presented of the social costs of landfilling, looking at a base case of a landfill with no environmental controls. The conclusion was that environmental and health costs of just the gas emissions from the degradation of materials in a landfill with no controls are estimated at over $80 per metric ton of material landfilled. In addition, the three workgroups (the other two are waste reduction and recycling, and landuse) held meetings and gave brief reports of their activities. The next meeting is scheduled for May 10th, at a location yet to be specified. A web page of the Task Force's membership and meeting materials is available at http://www.wasteresources.wi.gov/.

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