An Act Regarding the Regulation of Agricultural Composting Operations March 28, 2008
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 2284
Committee: Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Amends: 38 MRSA §1303-C, 38 MRSA §1304

Legislative Document 
No. 2284 
S.P.909 
An Act Regarding the Regulation of Agricultural Composting 
Operations 
March 28, 2008 
Reported by Senator SHERMAN of Aroostook for the Joint Standing Committee on 
Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry pursuant to Resolve 2007, chapter 139, section 4. 
Reference to the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry suggested and 
ordered printed under Joint Rule 218. 
Printed on recycled paper 
JOY J. O'BRIEN 
Secretary of the Senate 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 7 MRSA c. 749 is enacted to read: 
CHAPTER 749 
AGRICULTURAL COMPOSTING 
§12051. Definitions 
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms 
have the following meanings. 
1. Agricultural composting operation. "Agricultural composting operation" means 
composting that takes place on a farm and uses only animal manure, animal carcasses and 
offal, fish waste, leaves, wood chips, animal bedding and other vegetative waste, produce 
II 
and other vegetable and food waste. 
2. 
Best management practices. 
"Best management practices" means those 
practices that are determined by the commissioner to be based on reasonably available 
and economically feasible methods and technologies that are environmentally sound. 
"Best management practices" includes those practices suited to preventing, reducing or 
correcting problems that may be associated with an agricultural composting operation. 
3. Commercial agricultural composting operation. 
"Commercial agricultural 
composting operation" means an agricultural composting operation that produces 
compost sold, bartered or otherwise exchanged for compensation and generates a cash or 
in-kind equivalent annual income of $2,000 or more. 
4. 
Composting. 
"Composting" means the controlled aerobic decomposition of 
organic materials to produce a soil-like product beneficial to plant growth and suitable for 
agronomIc use. 
5. Farm. 
"Farm" means land on which the commercial production of crops and 
animals useful to humans occurs, including, but not limited to, the production of seed, 
forages, sod, grains, feed, berries, flowers, vegetables, milk and milk products, poultry 
and poultry products, livestock and livestock products and other plants grown or animals 
raised for food, feed or fiber. To qualify as a farm under this chapter, the person owning 
or operating the farm must file an Internal Revenue Tax Form 1040 under the appropriate 
schedule for the reporting of profit or loss from a farm. 
§12052. Registration 
A person who owns or operates a commercial agricultural composting operation shall 
register with the department no later than September I st of each year on a form 
prescribed by the department. A registration fee established in rule must be submitted 
with the form. The commissioner shall deposit registration fees into the Nutrient 
Management Fund established in section 4208. 
Page I - 123LR3589(OI)-1 
§12053. Duties of the commissioner 
The commissioner shall implement a program to educate com posters on agricultural 
composting methods and ensure adherence to best management practices by commercial 
agricultural composting operations. The commissioner shall advise persons operating 
commercial agricultural composting operations of technical assistance, funding and other 
resources available to them through the United States Department of Agriculture and the 
Soil and Water Conservations Districts organized under Title 12, chapter I. 
1. 
Rulemaking. 
The commissioner shall adopt rules to establish basic best 
management practices for commercial agricultural composting operations, a process for 
developing specific best management practices for an individual agricultural composting 
operation and timelines for implementation of best management practices prescribed by 
the commissioner. The commissioner shall also establish registration fees in rule. Fees 
must be appropriate to the size of the operation. Notwithstanding Title 5, section 8071, 
subsection 3, paragraph E, rules adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical 
rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A. 
2. Inspection; assistance. The commissioner or commissioner's designee may enter 
the premises of a commercial agricultural composting operation for the purposes of 
inspecting the operation for compliance with best management practices. When the 
commissioner determines that best management practices are not in use or that basic best 
management practices are insufficient to prevent environmental harm or an adverse 
impact on neighboring residents or landowners, the commissioner shall assist the owner 
or operator of the commercial agricultural composting operation in developing best 
management practices specific to that operation. 
3. Civil violation. Failure to implement best management practices in accordance 
with rules adopted under subsection 1 is a civil violation for which a fine of up to $1,000, 
together with an additional fine of up to $250 per day for every day the violation 
continues, may be adjudged. 
4. Other actions. If the person responsible for a commercial agricultural composting 
operation does not adopt best management practices in accordance with this section, the 
commissioner shall send a written report to the Attorney General and to the 
Commissioner of Environmental Protection advising them of the situation. The Attorney 
General may institute an action to enforce the provisions of this section or any other 
applicable state law. If a potential violation of Title 38 has occurred, the Commissioner 
of Environmental Protection shall respond as appropriate. 
Sec. 2. 38 MRSA §1303-C, sub-§l-D is enacted to read: 
1-0. Agricultural composting operation. "Agricultural composting operation" has 
the same meaning as defined in Title 7, section 4301, subsection 1. 
Sec. 3. 38 MRSA §1303-C, sub-§40, as enacted by PL 1989, c. 585, Pt. E, §4 
and amended by c. 869, Pt. A, §5 and affected by §21, is further amended to read: 
I 
40. 
Waste facility. 
"Waste facility" means any land area, structure, location, 
equipment or combination of them, including dumps, used for handling hazardous, 
biomedical or solid waste, waste oil, sludge or septage. An agricultural composting 
operation is not a waste facility. A land area or structure does not become a waste facility 
solely because: 
A. 
It is used by its owner for disposing of septage from the owner's residence; 
B. 
It is used to store for 90 days or less hazardous wastes generated on the same 
premIses; 
C. 
It is used by individual homeowners or lessees to open burn leaves, brush, 
deadwood and tree cuttings accrued from normal maintenance of their residential 
property, when such burning is permitted under section 599, subsection 3; or 
D. 
It is used by its residential owner to burn highly combustible domestic, 
household trash such as paper, cardboard cartons or wood boxes, when such burning 
is permitted under section 599, subsection 3. 
Sec. 4. 38 MRSA §1304, sub-§20 is enacted to read: 
20. 
Commercial agricultural composting operations. 
The provIsIons of this 
chapter do not apply to agricultural composting operations regulated by the Department 
of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources under Title 7, chapter 749. The board may not 
adopt rules regulating agricultural composting operations as waste facilities. 
SUMMARY 
This bill requires commercial agricultural composting operations to register with the 
Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources and directs the Commissioner of 
Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources to adopt best management practices for 
commercial agricultural composting operations. It authorizes the commissioner or the 
commissioner's designee to enter the premises of a commercial agricultural composting 
operation to inspect for compliance with best management practices. 
It removes commercial agricultural composting operations from regulation by the 
Department of Environmental Protection as waste facilities but does not exempt 
commercial agricultural composting operations from state or federal environmental laws.