Sec. 361.536. REQUIREMENTS FOR STRUCTURES ON CLOSED MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL FACILITY. (a) The owner or lessee of an existing or new structure that overlies a closed municipal solid waste landfill facility shall install automatic methane gas sensors approved by the commission and designed to trigger an audible alarm if the volumetric concentration of methane in the sampled air is greater than one percent.

(b) In the development of land that overlies a closed municipal solid waste landfill facility, a person may not, unless approved by the commission:

(1) drive piling into or through the final cover or a liner;

(2) bore through or otherwise penetrate the final cover or a liner; or

(3) construct an enclosed area under the natural grade of the land or under the grade of the final cover of the closed landfill.

(c) The owner or lessee of a structure built over a closed municipal solid waste landfill facility shall modify the structure as is necessary to comply with commission rules for a new structure that overlies a landfill to minimize the effects of, or to prevent, gas accumulation. The commission shall adopt rules to allow the owner or lessee of a structure a reasonable amount of time to make required modifications.

(d) The commission by rule shall require plans for a new structure over a closed municipal solid waste landfill facility to prevent or minimize the effects of harmful gas accumulation. At a minimum, the commission shall require:

(1) ventilation or active gas collection systems;

(2) a low gas-permeable membrane and a vented, permeable layer of an open-graded, clean aggregate material installed between the area below the slab for the structure and the soil of the final cover; and

(3) automatic methane gas sensors that will sound an audible alarm if the sensor detects a methane gas volumetric concentration of greater than one percent installed:

(A) within the venting pipe or permeable layer; and

(B) inside the structure.

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 770, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.