Colorado plans to regulate methane emissions from landfills by 2025

Colorado landfills release millions of tons of greenhouse gases every year as organic waste, including food, paper and yard waste, decomposes in the soil, contributing to global warming and harming human health.

Colorado, as part of its multi-pronged approach to eliminating 90% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, plans to tackle those landfill emissions next year with rules that could require operators to install new equipment to reduce to curb the amount of methane they release. and to increase monitoring technology to better track how much is being generated.

That of the state Air Quality Control Commission is expected to enact the new rules in August, which would make Colorado one of the first states in the country to implement stricter landfill regulations than the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The state launched its efforts last week with the first of three public hearings to explain why environmental leaders want to regulate landfill emissions of methane, a far more potent pollutant than carbon dioxide, and how they would propose doing so.

In addition to reducing air pollution, the methane reduction would also benefit Colorado communities living near landfills, where residents are often Latino, Black or Indigenous and make less money than the average household.

Finally, reducing methane would also help the Front Range improve air quality, which is a serious violation of federal ozone standards.

“Methane is an incredibly potent climate pollutant and reducing methane emissions from landfills is a highly cost-effective solution for climate action,” said Suzanne Jones, executive director of Eco cyclea non-profit recycler in Boulder. “And it’s an opportunity for Colorado to use its expertise in methane monitoring of oil and gas operations to apply to landfills as a model for the rest of the country.”

There are 51 active landfills in Colorado, and some are owned and operated by cities and counties, while others are owned by private companies. It is unclear how many of these landfills would be affected by the new methane reduction rules, as regulators have not yet finalized their proposal, which would determine how large a polluter a landfill would have to be to be covered by the new rules.

Landfills are the third largest source of methane emissions, after oil and gas production and livestock farming in the United States.

Colorado landfills emitted 1.45 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2020, according to the most current data from the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. That’s 1% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the state, Tim Taylor, supervisor of the department’s climate change program, said during last week’s public hearing.

However, environmentalists and even federal and state regulators believe the amount of methane leaking from landfills could be much higher.

In June, a NASA study Using satellite data, it was estimated that U.S. landfills released 50% more methane than the EPA reports, and a subset of 70 high-emitting landfills found that emissions were on average 77% higher than what was reported to the EPA.

Only 21 of Colorado’s landfills are large enough to report their methane emissions to the EPA under current regulations, but they are responsible for 76% of the state’s industrial methane sources, before mining, manufacturing and food processing, according to a report that was released this year. month Diligent laboratories And Healthy air and water Coloradoa coalition of healthcare professionals fighting climate change.

Landfills are “living wastes,” where food scraps, discarded paper products and landscaping materials break down over the years and release methane, along with other chemicals such as benzene and toluene, says Katherine Blauvelt, director of circular economy at Industrious Labs, a group that focuses on focuses on reducing the industry’s impact on climate change.

“Colorado landfills are responsible for the equivalent of 1 million cars on the road,” Blauvelt said. “Every little bit of methane that you don’t release into the atmosphere has a positive impact. The way you do that is through basic rules. In Colorado it’s like we’re working with Windows 2000 technology.”

The EPA already requires larger landfills to monitor and report emissions, but Colorado plans to expand those requirements to smaller landfills, increasing the number that will be regulated, Taylor said. Under EPA requirements, landfills are regulated based on their designed capacity, but Colorado will direct landfills to follow the new rules based on the amount of waste they already have, he said.

Landfills that fall below the threshold set by Colorado will be required to install gas collection and control systems to capture the methane, Taylor said.

Then the operator would have choices: Install a closed combustion flare so that methane is burned and converted into carbon dioxide, which is a less potent pollutant, or convert the methane into a natural gas that can be used in the electric grid, Taylor said.

The state is also considering requiring landfills to use biofilters or biocovers to reduce methane emissions.

“Biocovers and biofilters are passive methods of reducing landfill emissions because they rely on naturally occurring microbes or methane-eating bacteria to convert methane into carbon dioxide or water without the need for any external energy input or active intervention” , said Taylor.

Environmentalists are also pushing the state to increase oversight of landfills, including using drones and satellite imagery to better detect leaks that might otherwise go unnoticed due to looser monitoring requirements. Landfill workers who already monitor emissions do so once a quarter by walking around the site with detection equipment, Blauvelt said.

Aerial flights conducted to search for airborne methane leaks have detected unreported plumes at multiple Colorado landfills, including the Tower Landfill in Commerce City, the Larimer County Landfill in Fort Collins and the North Weld Landfill in Ault, according to the report from Industrious Labs.

Nine large methane plumes were detected by flights at the Tower Landfill in September 2023 and August 2024. Those plumes were so large that they would have been considered super emitters under the EPA’s standards for the oil and gas industry, the report said.

The landfill, which is owned and operated by Republic Servicesdiscovered more than two dozen cases exceeding federal limits for methane emissions during a quarterly inspection in August. But “a landfill can leak methane more than once per quarter,” the report said.

Colorado received a federal grant for air monitoring of methane emissions in the state and environmentalists hope it will be applied to regulating landfills, Blauvelt said.

“This is about common sense improvements based on what we know about methane,” she said.

Melissa Quillard, spokeswoman for Republic Services, said the plume occurred at Tower Landfill in August 2024 when the company was building a new landfill and had multiple excavating equipment in use. That work temporarily uncovered waste so engineering liners and additional infrastructure could be installed, she said.

Quillard’s email did not address the September 2023 plume.

While Republic Services does not comment on upcoming rule changes, Quillard noted that gas from landfills fluctuates throughout the day based on the age and composition of the waste, weather, construction and how the waste is moved through the landfill.

Any monitoring and reporting technique should take these dynamics into account, she said in an emailed statement to JS. Satellites and drones capture a moment in time and do not follow the EPA’s existing reporting model or provide a representative assessment of a landfill’s total emissions, she said.

Republic Services owns three landfills in metro Denver, and the company is building a new organic waste facility in the area. Two of the local sites are in the early stages of developing projects that will convert methane into usable natural gas. And the company already uses capture and control systems to burn methane, Quillard said.

One thing that won’t be addressed if the landfill methane emissions rule is implemented is how to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills through expanded composting and recycling. That’s because this rule will be made by the Air Quality Control Commission, a body that can only set policies on air pollution.

Brian Loma, hazardous waste reduction advocate GreenLatinos Coloradothe state health department hopes Division of Hazardous Waste and Materials Management will push for better composting and recycling as the Air Quality Commission takes up proposed methane rules.

GreenLatinos supports greater regulation of landfills because so many Latinos live within a mile of landfills, forcing them to breathe dirtier air.

“The most important way to reduce methane emissions is to not throw organic matter into the landfill,” says Loma.