Virginia moves to rewrite landfill rules after Shoosmith

The crisis at the bankrupt Shoosmith Landfill in Chesterfield is directly triggering a statewide rewrite of Virginia's landfill rules.

Why it matters: New regulatory filings are the clearest acknowledgment yet from state regulators that gaps in Virginia's rules left them unprepared for a cleanup as expensive as Shoosmith's.

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