LEBANON — A proposed ordinance that would allow so-called “green burials” at two municipal cemeteries is being criticized by both advocates of the practice and those who support more restrictions.
The city will hold a public comment session on a proposal on Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. The City Council may also vote on the ordinance at that meeting, city manager Shaun Mulholland said.
However, if public comment leads to significant changes, the likely course would be to delay the vote and allow more time to consider the revised language.
“We don’t write ordinances on the fly,” Mayor Tim McNamara said at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, where the ordinance was discussed.
In green burials, also known as natural burials, bodies are prepared without chemical preservatives and embalming fluids. With conventional burials, toxins, including formaldehyde, can leach into the soil and groundwater. Green burials also use a biodegradable coffin, casket or shroud, eschewing vaults that slow decomposition and varnishes that can also be pollutants. Lebanon’s proposed ordinance requires a “rigid” container, precluding a shroud.
Embalming became common practice after the Civil War when bodies needed to be shipped long distances to be buried at home, but green burials are a return to historical burial practices.
In May, the Board of Cemetery Trustees voted, 3-2, to put in place a five-year moratorium on adopting any regulations that would allow for natural burials. But in June, the City Council overrode the trustees and, in a unanimous vote, directed the City Manager’s office to draw up rules for natural burials.
In the June council meeting, McNamara said the moratorium was “too long” given that residents are interested in making green burials an option in Lebanon.
“As I pointed out at previous council meetings, not everyone is going to be happy with all of the provisions that are in there,” Shaun Mulholland told the City Council on Wednesday. “I would suggest that this (ordinance) compromises some of those issues. Some people will have serious disagreements with that.”
As previously reported in the Valley News, some of the Board of Cemetery Trustees’ members have clashed with advocates for green burial over liability, maintenance and who would direct burials.
The City Manager’s office made some changes to regulations that the board had recommended.
The historic, hilly cemetery on Old Pine Tree Cemetery Road was the only site being considered for natural burials when officials were first considering regulations for natural burial. But accessibility was a concern on the steep terrain, and so the ordinance up for consideration would also make natural burial an option in the West Lebanon Cemetery.
At its Oct. 12 meeting, the Board of Cemetery Trustees voted to recommend that the City Council adopt the proposed ordinance, with the caveat that it still holds that natural burials should only be allowed within the Old Pine Tree Cemetery for at least the first two years.
Advocates for green burial would like it to be an option at all of the city’s cemeteries, but Mulholland said there are maintenance problems.
“We’re not driving heavy equipment, lawn mowers, over natural burials,” he said. “They’re going to allow the natural growth — grass — to grow up in those areas. We use heavy equipment to dig graves. Without a vault, there would be obvious problems.”
The proposed ordinance also does not require the family of the deceased to hire a funeral director for a natural burial, as the cemetery board had recommended.
“I was opposed to that,” Mulholland said. “That cost can be significant. Some folks can’t afford that. The requirement is forms and documentation.”
Advocates for natural burial raised concerns about the ordinance, including its requirement that the bottom of the burial container be at least 5 feet below the ground. Green burials are typically only 3½ to 4 feet below the ground, and in a letter to the City Council, Sarah Riley raised concerns that the depth requirement would slow decomposition and add unnecessary additional work.
Advocates also object to the fact that under the ordinance, city staff would not dig graves, lower remains, or replace excavated material. And while the city offers wintertime services for conventional burials, that will not be an option for customers who choose a green burial.
“This is new territory. And for families that are faced with fairly rapid interment, that could be a deterrent,” Lorraine Kelly, another advocate for natural burial, said in an interview.
She and other Lebanon residents have been pressing the city to allow for natural burials since March 2019.
“My suggestion is that the city provide equal services for the preparation and closing of all graves or that it contract out this work for all burials, regardless of season,” Kelly wrote to the City Council.
But Mulholland said “handling these bodies — it’s not like handling a casket.” In particular, city staff could be concerned that they at greater risk of disease when handling a body in a natural burial.
Advocates contend that health and safety concerns are minimal.
Kelly also raised concerns about the ordinance’s requirement that natural burial is only an option for those who are residents at the time of death. The “narrowness of that requirement” may complicate family’s end-of-life plans, she argued. For example, a lifelong Lebanon resident who dies in an assisted living community in another town would not be eligible for natural burial.
The reason for the residency requirement is that “very few cemeteries allow for natural burials,” Mulholland said.
In the Upper Valley, it is an option in Grafton and Corinth, and Plainfield is considering it.
“We want to ensure that we do not have an avalanche of people from other communities or states taking up all of the cemetery spaces that are intended for residents or family members of residents of the city,” Mulholland said
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in person in the City Council chambers in City Hall, and remotely via the city’s virtual platform at https://lebanonnh.gov/1359/Lebanon-Live-Meetings.
Claire Potter is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at cpotter@vnews.com or 603-727- 3242.