New Hampshire's (Criminally Insane) Governor and Senate Value Trash over Clean Water

Over 200 concerned citizens gathered at the NH State House on September 15, 2022 to urge legislators to protect NH’s waters from poorly sited landfills

New Hampshire's (Criminally Insane) Governor and Senate Value Trash over Clean Water

The Hard Work of Educating NH Senators On Sensible Siting of Landfills Must Continue

Much of the country, even the State of NH, are in serious drought. Yet in NH, the legislators are so flagrantly wasteful and easily bought that they refuse to protect our precious clean water from poorly sited landfills.

Over the last few years I have been privy to masterclasses on activism. The North Country Alliance for Balanced Change, a collaboration of retired lawyers, sales professionals, teachers and other concerned citizens worked to educate the NH legislature on the geology of landfill siting. Organizer Hayley Jones, now with Slingshot, provided superb meeting and cross-organizational support.

A year of work resulted in a NH bill, HR 1454, which updates the antique landfill siting requirements to include sensible scientific measures of the rate of effluent from landfills. The bill passed both the Republican-dominated house and senate.

Yet, in spite of the national drought status, Governor Sununu vetoed the bill, citing waste industry lobbyist nonsense. (Not even worth citing.)

September 15, 2022, the NH legislature met to override the Governor’s vetos. The legislature stood up for our water and overrode the veto by well over the 2/3 required.

My poster for the State House rally to protect NH clean waters from landfill seepage and PFAS.

Not so in the Senate. There are conjectures as to why three senators changed their votes from supporting the bill to voting against it. The most likely are pressure from the waste industry lobbyists and Sununu himself. Don’t be shaming the Governor!

NH Senate candidate Edith Tucker vows to pick the fight. And the water protectors are already at work to further modify the bill to make it unveto-able.