Eliot Wessler lives in Whitefield and works with a number of grassroots organizations in New Hampshire’s North Country.

New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services (DES) has the responsibility to balance the interests of landfill developers and the public. But the agency, under the thumb of outgoing Gov. Sununu, has leaned heavily in favor of the solid waste industry for years, and the New Hampshire legislature has too often gone along.

DES’ new landfill siting rules were approved at the Dec. 19 JLCAR (Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules) hearing. DES provided JLCAR with just enough half-truths that it was able to ram home a version of the rules that was heavily influenced by landfill developers.

The stink from that hearing hasn’t abated. The written testimony in advance of the hearing consisted of virtually unanimous objection from scientists and crickets from the industry. As for the hearing, the 15-20 people who showed up to provide testimony opposed to DES’ rules were denied an opportunity to testify by an administrative maneuver engineered by two of the ten JLCAR members.

Given everything we now know about the risks of PFAS contamination from landfills, including the contamination of public water supplies near Pease, the hundreds of incidents of leachate mismanagement at Casella’s NCES landfill in Bethlehem, and Casella’s hubris in trying to push through permit applications to build a brand new mega-landfill (the GSL project), it’s appalling that DES’ new rules make it easier for landfill developers to build landfills wherever they want.

The most egregious thing DES did was to weaken the hydraulic conductivity standard compared to its original proposal. The industry lobbied DES to make the change, arguing that the stronger standard would make siting landfills harder. DES caved, despite overwhelming evidence that the weaker standard dramatically increased the risk of landfill contamination, and with no countervailing evidence that a stronger standard would prevent siting new landfills.

So now we’re stuck. DES’ standard is far weaker than the standard used in both Maine and Vermont. Moreover, it is weaker than all U.S. states that have such standards, as well as many foreign countries, including countries with extremely lax environmental rules such as India.

DES is required by administrative rules, enforced by JLCAR, to make decisions on the merits of the available evidence. In weakening the conductivity standard, DES offered assertions to JLCAR but provided no evidence that the conductivity standard weakening was based on merit. In fact, the evidence presented to JLCAR seems to confirm that DES reverse-engineered the standard so that permits for Casella’s GSL project could be greenlighted:

■DES argued that the old rules did not have a hydraulic conductivity standard, so the new rules are ipso facto more protective. That defies logic given that the standard is set so low that it virtually provides a permission structure for landfills to be sited in highly permeable soil.

■DES disowned a DES-sponsored soil permeability map that showed some 85% of the state has more suitable soils for landfill siting than the GSL site. But having disowned the map, DES produced no data or evidence of any kind regarding the distribution of soil permeability in New Hampshire.

■In DES’s own words, “NHDES staff asked other concerned members of the regulated community to provide information and documents to demonstrate …foreclosing… the siting of any new landfill or the expansion of any existing landfill, but the department did not receive any supporting documentation.”

■On the same subject, in DES’ own words, “Other commenters including several industry representatives commented that the initial values…would make it very difficult to site new landfills or to expand the existing landfills in the state. One industry representative referenced a statewide study that had been conducted for a private client that they claim showed this result. The representative was unwilling to share the document.”

With JLCAR’s acceptance of DES’ Section 800 rules revisions, DES may have won a pyrrhic victory. Outgoing Gov. Sununu is just about the last public official to think GSL is a good idea, and he will be remembered by many as a cheerleader for unneeded large engineering projects, including the albatross that is the Seabrook nuclear plant, and the ill-conceived Northern Pass transmission project.

With the inauguration of Governor-elect Ayotte in a few weeks, DES will be under new management. She has said that under her watch New Hampshire will modernize its landfill management practices, will not become the solid waste dump for all of New England, and that the GSL project will not happen.

In addition, given the heightened awareness in the New Hampshire legislature of the dangers from landfills, as well as heightened awareness that DES historically has not done nearly enough to faithfully fulfill its mission to protect public health and welfare, there is hope that through new legislation and tougher oversight, DES will be encouraged (or maybe forced) to re-focus on its mission.

Erica Laue and her family spent their New Years Eve snacking and playing Dungeons and Dragons with friends. But the next morning, they decided to hit the trails and catch the scenery at Monadnock State Park.

“I am so carb loaded and ready to go,” Laue said before they hit the trails.

They were among the crowds of solo hikers, couples and families who made their way to participating New Hampshire State Parks on Wednesday as part of the annual First Day Hikes. The state has been hosting these self-guided hikes each New Year’s Day for the past 14 years.

Officials at Monadnock State Park say they saw maybe 80 to 100 people roll through on Wednesday — some hit the Parker Trail, which was designated for First Day Hikes, while others set out for the top of the mountain. Other participating parks in New Hampshire included Odiorne Point, Pawtuckaway and Milan Hill. It’s also a tradition practiced at state parks around the country.

The Laues have been doing First Day Hikes for the past eight years, originally starting the tradition when they lived in Colorado. When they moved to New Hampshire, they were happy to find that the state offered these hikes, too. At the time, they had a 2-year-old and another child on the way — and it’s turned into a family tradition.

They’ve previously explored Bear Brook and Odiorne Point State Park. But this year, they met up with Laue’s sister, parents and extended family at Monadnock State Park.

“As a family, this is something we really love doing, and so this is one of the ways we spend quality time together,” Laue said, adding that the kids got their first backpacking kits for Christmas and the family is planning a hiking trip in the summer.

Roxanne Loudon, an avid hiker from Peterborough, was also on the trails with her kids and husband.

It was her fourth year of First Day Hikes, and she chose Monadnock State Park this year because it’s close to home and she enjoys the reservoirs and dam.

Over the years of participating in the tradition, she said she’s seen everything from porcupines in trees to pheasants on the trails. (She says pheasants are the ones to be concerned about, because they’ll chase you down.)

Loudon said she’s pretty horrible at holding New Year’s resolutions, but she has one in mind this year: keeping her phone off the trails. She says if you want to enjoy nature, ditch the phone, buy a camera and take it with you on the hike instead.

“Our goal this year is to get a landline, that’s our goal, that’s our resolution,” Loudon said. “And I know I can meet that.”

This is NHPR’s The Big Question. In this series, we ask you a question about life in New Hampshire, you submit an answer, and your voice may be featured on air or online.

For December’s Big Question, we asked: What was your favorite moment of 2024?

Here’s what some of you shared.

Barbara Jo Kingsley – Peterborough: My favorite event this past year was climbing Mount Washington. I had a very major, 10-hour surgery last fall, and I told the surgeon that my goal was to climb Mount Washington that coming summer. And we did. We went up to the top in misty, drizzly weather and saw nothing but fog, but we made it to the top. The next day, we went down the Cog Railway. I had been up on the top when I was younger, but it was new for me after surgery. It was a goal I set, and I made it, and I was real proud of myself.

Rik Yeames – Concord: My favorite moment of 2024 occurred on Monday, April 8 at 3:30 p.m. when I was able to view totality from Pittsburg, New Hampshire, of the total solar eclipse that occurred that day. I was actually a NASA partner, [a] solar eclipse ambassador, [and] had an eclipse mobile. I spoke to a lot of school groups, libraries [and] some rotary clubs around New Hampshire. So it was the culmination of about nine years of working, planning and preparing, getting ready for the eclipse. It turned out to be the sight of a lifetime.

Carla Schwartz – Meredith, New Hampshire, and Carlisle, Massachusetts: My favorite moment was that we prepared a camper van to go to Vermont to see the total solar eclipse. We put in windows and we put in cabinetry and a refrigerator that runs on DC, and all this stuff for solar panels that go all the way to the top so that we can live off the grid. It was an event for humanity, really, to be out there and have the sky darken and then listen to the quiet when the birds disappeared, and then have the sun appear again eventually. It was really beautiful.

Heidi Solomon-Orlick – Henniker: Well, probably the two biggest things for me is one, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of publishing my first children’s book at the age of 65 years old. And I think it proves that you are never too old, and it is never too late to reach for the stars. This book is the book that I wish I had when I was a child. The second moment for me this year is the fact that late last year, I was aged out of my corporate role and I decided to lean into full time entrepreneurship. It was a difficult transition for me, but it is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Fred Portnoy – Canterbury: My best memory of 2024 follows closely upon my worst memory of 2024. After my wife passed away in June, I determined two things: one, I was going to attend every concert offered by the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Boscawen that summer. Two, I was going to honor my wife with a one-woman art show of her work in the town’s parish house community center, culminating in a celebration of life. The confluence of those two led to the high point: Ashley Bathgate, cellist of Avaloch, very kindly offered to play selections we chose together for my wife’s celebration of life in September.