Existing financial assurance mechanisms under 9VAC20-70 have proven inadequate to ensure owners and operators fulfill proper closure and post-closure requirements of landfills across the Commonwealth. Corrective action of permitted and unpermitted waste sites is paid by the taxpayers when these financial assurance mechanisms fail and owners are insolvent, whether through federal Superfund or through General Assembly via budget amendment.

A variety of financial assurance mechanisms exist for owners and operators to fulfill their statutory requirements. States are authorized to implement their own financial assurance mechanisms, as described more fully in 40 CFR 258.74 (i). Virginia is approved to implement its solid waste program. Virginia DEQ and the Virginia Waste Management Board should convene a Regulatory Action Panel to consider the practicability of developing a more robust financial assurance mechanism to serve as a backstop. Increasing the existing requirements and coverages under 9VAC20-70 only moves the underlying problems into the future.

Similar “pooled” financial assurance mechanisms are used successfully within DEQ programs and across the Commonwealth, as seen in unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation. DEQ and the Board should consider the option of becoming an “insurer of last resort” for corrective actions of permitted and unpermitted waste cleanups across the Commonwealth. The Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Program is convening a RAP for their heat-stress standard, and provides a good mechanism for interested parties to nominate panel members for the agency to review.