Virginia moves to rewrite landfill rules after Shoosmith

Catch up quick: Shoosmith is expected to cost about $173 million to stabilize and monitor over the next 30 years, a price tag that may ultimately fall to taxpayers since it far exceeds what the owners were required to set aside.

Driving the news: The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) opened the formal process to tighten landfill regulations last week, citing the "recent abandonment of a solid waste management facility in Central Virginia."

• DEQ says the current rules — last updated 25 years ago — didn't require landfill owners to have enough money available to clean up an abandoned site "in a manner that is protective of public health and the environment."

Zoom in: A companion guidance document published at the same time shows how DEQ wants oversight to change. It proposes requiring:

• Earlier monitoring so regulators can spot troubled landfills before they spiral into crises.

• Increasingly aggressive corrective actions as landfill conditions worsen, including more testing and leachate treatment.
• Operators to increase the money they have for cleanup as risks and costs grow.

What they're saying: "We need more powerful regulations," DEQ director Mike Rolband said at a Chesterfield Board of Supervisors meeting this week.

• "What we want to do is make sure that there is a financial assurance, a bond or an insurance that we can call upon to prevent this from ever occurring again," he said.

What's next: Public comment is open through Aug. 12.

Go deeper: What's next for Chesterfield's $173M Shoosmith Landfill cleanup