Solid waste landfills: subsurface temperatures.

Assembly Member Schiavo's landfill monitoring legislation establishes new requirements for detecting and responding to elevated underground temperatures at municipal solid waste facilities across California. The measure creates a three-tiered system of mandatory actions when sustained gas temperatures reach specified thresholds over 60-day periods.

Under the bill's framework, landfill operators must notify local enforcement agencies and state regulators within 48 hours if gas temperatures reach 131 degrees Fahrenheit. At this first tier, operators must file corrective action plans and provide weekly temperature data for affected areas. When temperatures hit 146 degrees, operators face additional obligations including public notifications to residents within four miles and oversight from a multi-agency coordination group. At 170 degrees, permits may be suspended until temperatures decrease, and local or state emergency declarations become options if regulators determine an imminent public health risk exists.

The measure authorizes penalties of $10,000 per day for notification failures and up to $1 million weekly for operators whose negligence leads to sustained high-temperature events. These funds would support a new Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Account to assist affected communities. The State Air Resources Board must establish mandatory temperature monitoring protocols, while the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery must develop minimum standards for identifying and managing subsurface temperature events by July 2027.