(AUSTIN) — Senator Lois W. Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) has successfully passed Senate Bill 2078 out of the Senate with a bipartisan vote, effectively stopping composting facilities like the one proposed in Lee County.

“In response to the thousands of outcries from constituents and leadership at the local level of numerous cities and counties, particularly Lee County, this is important legislation,” said Senator Kolkhorst. “Residents and local city and county officials reached out to my office expressing significant concerns about the potential environmental impacts of a compost facility, including the risk of contaminating our water supplies – especially Lake Somerville.”

In SB 2078, a "composting facility" is defined as a site that composts a variety of organic materials, including yard trimmings, clean wood, vegetative matter, paper, manure, meat, fish, dairy products, and oils from municipal, commercial, and institutional sources.

Under the new regulations, a composting facility must stay in the same county where food waste is mandated and collected. The only city currently with mandated composting is Austin.

Last fall, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) gave Lee County Judge Frank Malinak a notice of intent from Break It Down, LLC to operate a compost facility in Lincon, a small, rural town in the county. Break It Down is an Austin-based company that services multi-family housing and businesses in the Austin and Waco areas.

“The goal of this particular company was to collect the waste from a city which mandates such collections, and dump it in another county’s rural properties,” said Kolkhorst. “That is unacceptable – our rural land will not be overrun and potentially harmed because of mandates by urban communities.”

Lee County Commissioners Court, the City of Giddings, the City of Brenham, and Washington County Commissioners Courts all filed resolutions asking the TCEQ to reject any proposed composting facility there. Lee County Judge Malinak expressed strong concerns in an op-ed to the local Giddings paper, particularly about the odor that would likely be experienced in the area, the facility’s impact on property values, and its location near Yegua Creek, which feeds into Lake Somerville, the water source for Brenham and much of Washington County.

“We owe it to all our communities to prioritize their health and safety, which is why this legislation is so crucial,” said Kolkhorst.

SB 2078 now goes to the House for consideration and will take effect on September 1 upon signature of the Governor. Representative Stan Gerdes is the House sponsor. Violations of this provision will result in a civil penalty of $1,000 for each infraction.

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