HB 1478 New Hampshire House · 2026 Regular Session

requiring the department of environmental services to revise the rules for proposed new landfills.

HB 1478 requires New Hampshire's Department of Environmental Services to revise rules for new landfills to better protect public health and the environment. The bill mandates that new landfills must maintain a minimum 1,500-foot setback from drinking water wells, rivers, lakes, and coastal waters, calculated using a specific groundwater travel distance method. This method requires applicants to hire independent hydrogeologists to test groundwater velocity and ensure contamination cannot reach water sources within five years. The rule changes directly affect landfill applicants and the Department, replacing current rules deemed insufficiently protective of water resources.

Issues: ✓ Environment

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Dec 2025

Committee Review

Apr 2026

House Passage

Mar 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Dec 4, 2025 Last action May 7, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → As Amended by the House · 5 edits

MODERATE

The House amendment narrows the bill's scope in several ways: it limits key restrictions to 'new landfills' only (removing coverage of expansions), removes the 24/7 on-site staffing requirement entirely, and adds a provision that imported soil cannot be used to fix deficient native soils. These changes make the bill less restrictive on existing facilities while tightening one technical standard for new sites.

SCOPE

Paragraph XVI changed from 'No permit shall be issued' to 'No solid waste permit shall be issued,' narrowing the restriction to only solid waste permits rather than any type of departmental permit.

Paragraph XVIII removed the phrase 'or landfill expansion,' so the subsurface investigation requirement now applies only to new landfills, not expansions of existing ones.

The hydraulic conductivity soil requirement (former paragraph XX, now paragraph XIX) was narrowed from applying to all landfills ('No permit shall be granted for a landfill') to only new landfills ('No permit shall be granted for a new landfill').

REQUIREMENT

The entire 24/7 staffing requirement (former paragraph XIX) was deleted. This previously required all landfill facilities to have at least one employee or contracted personnel on site 24 hours a day, 365 days per year from waste acceptance through final closure.

A new provision was added stating that if native in-situ soils do not meet the maximum hydraulic conductivity threshold of 1 x 10^-4 cm/sec, no amount of imported soil can overcome the deficiency, effectively making such sites ineligible regardless of engineering solutions.

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Full legislative history

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Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Apr 29, 2026

Committee

Committee Report: Referred to Interim Study, 05/07/2026, Vote 4-1; SC 17

upper

Mar 17, 2026

Introduced

Introduced 03/12/2026 and Referred to Energy and Natural Resources; SJ 7

upper

Mar 11, 2026

Lower · Passed

Ought to Pass with Amendment 2026-0975h: MA VV 03/11/2026 HJ 7 P. 34

lower

Mar 11, 2026

Introduced

Amendment # 2026-0975h: AA VV 03/11/2026 HJ 7 P. 34

lower

Mar 4, 2026

Lower · Passed

Committee Report: Ought to Pass with Amendment # 2026-0975h 03/03/2026 (Vote 12-1; CC) HC 10 P. 17

lower

Feb 25, 2026

Lower · Passed

Full Committee Work Session: 03/03/2026 10:15 am GP 153

lower

Dec 4, 2025

Introduced

Introduced 01/07/2026 and referred to Environment and Agriculture HJ 1 P. 22

lower

1 primary · 8 co-sponsors