Saud Anwar

Sen. Anwar Votes to Strengthen Connecticut Farms and Improve our Environment

HARTFORD – State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) voted for a bill this evening that will allow more Connecticut farms the opportunity to convert farm waste and food scraps into valuable, usable biogas – a win/win for both farmers and for towns and local taxpayers who are confronting the ever-rising cost of disposing of solid waste, nearly 25% of which is food waste.

House Bill 6503, “AN ACT CONCERNING THE SITING OF ANAEROBIC DIGESTION FACILITIES ON FARMS,” passed the Senate this evening and now heads to Governor Lamont’s desk for his signature into law.

“In proudly serving Ellington, a town with one of the largest dairy farms in the state, I have joined my colleagues to work diligently to make sure an anaerobic digester could come to the town and allow financial and environmental strength and support to the business,” said Sen. Anwar. “Previous bills have tried to make this easier, but there continue to be barriers in the process. This legislation lifts some of those barriers to support further adoption of the process in our state.”

HB 6503 streamlines the state permitting process for building anerobic digestion facilities on farms that also host animal feeding operations, such as dairy farms. Anaerobic digestion is a process by which bacteria digest and break down organic material (such as animal manure and food scraps) and produce a methane-rich biogas, which can then be used to generate heat, create electricity, or fuel vehicles.

The bill requires farms that are also the site of an anerobic digestion facility to maintain a comprehensive nutrient management plan – developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture – that not only benefits the animal’s health, but also ensures that the water and soil on the farm does not become contaminated with a variety of random and possibly harmful feed stock ingredients.

The bill also requires more producers of organic material (for example, restaurants and grocery stores) to separate those organic materials (which are recyclable) from other solid waste and to recycle those organic materials at nearby composting facilities. Under current law, only facilities which produce 52 tons annually of organic waste had to recycle it; this bill cuts that in half, to 26 tons, therefore affecting more facilities.

Recycling organic waste like food scraps is important because according to a 2015 study by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), food waste from homes and businesses nearly equaled paper waste as the largest percentage of all trash: 22.3% food waste versus 23.1% paper waste. Food waste is the fastest-growing segment of Connecticut’s solid waste stream, and it’s also the largest portion of waste that can be recycled.

The bill also requires DEEP to establish a voluntary pilot program for municipalities seeking to save money on their solid waste disposal costs by separating organic materials from other trash and ensuring that those organic materials can be recycled at authorized composting facilities.