TEXAS SENATE PASSES KOLKHORST’S COMPOST BILL

  

A bill authored by State Senator Lois Kolkhorst to tighten restrictions on compost facilities operating in certain counties has passed the Senate.

Senate Bill 2078 passed with a 27-4 vote on Tuesday and now heads to the House for consideration.  

Under the new regulations, a composting facility must stay in the same county where food waste is mandated and collected.  Currently, the only city with mandated composting is Austin in Travis County.

The bill is a response to a permit application from Austin-based Break It Down, LLC, who seeks to operate a compost facility on land in Lee County, near Lincoln.  The company services multi-family housing and businesses in the Austin and Waco areas.

In a release, Kolkhorst said she has received thousands of outcries from residents and local city and county officials, expressing concerns about the potential environmental impacts, strong odors, effects on property values, and the risk of contaminating water supplies like Lake Somerville.  She said collecting waste from a city that mandates it and dumping it in another county’s rural properties is “unacceptable” and that “we owe it to all our communities to prioritize their health and safety.”

The bill defines a composting facility as a site that composts a variety of organic materials, including yard trimmings, clean wood, vegetative matter, paper, manure, meat, fish, dairy products, and oils from municipal, commercial, and institutional sources.

Resolutions have been filed by the City of Brenham, Washington County, City of Giddings and Lee County, all asking the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to reject any proposed composting facility there. 

State Representative Stan Gerdes is the House sponsor of Kolkhorst’s bill.  If passed into law, violations of the provision would result in a civil penalty of $1,000 for each infraction.