The average American household pays $300 to $900 per year on trash disposal services. For residents of Colorado, this bill might soon be much larger.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is considering a rule to clamp down on methane emissions from landfills, which are a significant contributor of the greenhouse gas (GHG) nationwide and the third-largest methane emitter in the state, behind the oil and gas industry and agriculture.
Last year, Colorado began requiring all landfills in the state to report their GHG emissions to the state's Department of Public Health and Environment. In April, the agency followed up on this rule by releasing Regulation 31, which requires landfills holding 450,000 tons of waste or more—the Environmental Protection Agency lists at least 28 such landfills in Colorado—to regularly monitor and report their methane emissions to state regulators. Those that emit between 732 tons and 2,000 tons of methane annually must conduct quarterly surface monitoring of their methane emissions. Those that emit more than 2,000 tons must conduct quarterly monitoring and install a gas collection and control system within 18 months.
