Ash Landfill Closure Committee begins work

Organizational meeting set for Monday night; WIN Waste’s participation is still uncertain

By Mark E. Vogler

Does WIN Waste Innovations plan on attending meetings of the town’s newly created Ash Landfill Closure Committee? Will WIN accept the invitation of the committee to participate in the meetings as a nonvoting member?

Committee members who reached out to WIN in advance of next Monday’s (July 1) organizational meeting – set for 6:30 p.m. in the first-floor conference room at Saugus Town Hall – were still waiting for answers late this week.

“To this point, we have not been invited to participate on the committee, so it would be premature to comment on specifics,” WIN’s Sr. Director of Communications & Community Engagement, Mary Urban, said in a statement to The Saugus Advocate, declining to say whether the company plans on attending the committee meetings.

Rather than engage in talks about closing the landfill, WIN advocates the town signing off on a Host Community Agreement (HCA) that would allow the company to continue operation of the landfill for many years to come instead of closing it. “We did play an active role in the Landfill committee that spent more than 18 months discussing what benefits the town would want to receive from our continued operation of the monofill, resulting in a Host Community Agreement that was approved by the Board of Selectmen,” Urban wrote in her statement to the newspaper.

“Our focus remains on finalizing the agreement that would provide the town with tens of millions of dollars in economic and environmental benefits while allowing us to continue operating in the manner that makes the most sense for the town, its residents, and the environment — by keeping trucks off the road and continuing to responsibly manage the ash within our adjacent monofill,” she said.

Meanwhile, two committee members said they made several efforts to reach out to WIN this week, hoping that the company would be there to participate in Monday’s organizational session and future meetings.

“Town Meeting clearly appreciated the fact that WIN would be invited to participate,” said Precinct 10 Town Meeting Member Peter Manoogian, who authored the article approved by the Annual Town Meeting to establish the five-member committee.

“I believe it is also in the best interest of their shareholders to participate,” Manoogian said.

Board of Selectmen Chair Debra Panetta, another member of the Ash Landfill Closure Committee, said she called two WIN representatives on Wednesday, including Urban.

“It’s very important to plan for the future of the unlined ash landfill,” Panetta told The Saugus Advocate.

“I do hope a WIN Waste representative is able to attend these meetings,” she said.

Monday’s meeting agenda

Joining Panetta and Manoogian on the committee are Selectman Michael Serino, Precinct 10 Town Meeting Member Carla Scuzzarella and Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree or his designee.

At Monday night’s meeting, the committee plans to select its officers, review Town Meeting Article 25 that created the committee, develop and approve correspondence to WIN that invites the company to participate and to determine and identify information in the public realm that would facilitate the work of the committee.

During Session 2 of this year’s Annual Town Meeting, members voted 44-0 – with one abstention – to create a five-member Ash Landfill Closure Committee within two weeks of this year’s Town Meeting adjourning. The purpose of the committee is to identify time frames for final closure, post-closure, maintenance and monitoring, post-closure economic reuse possibilities and other related issues that may be identified, according to the article that was approved.

“I was pleased with the fact that not a single Town Meeting Member voted against this article,” Manoogian said after the Annual Town Meeting passed his article.

“The formation of this committee for the stated purpose of closure of the ash landfill sends a strong message that Saugus wants to see closure of the landfill and explore other uses that will neither burden the public health or the environment,” Manoogian said.

“The work of this committee will be serious and non-adversarial. It is therefore my hope that WIN will have a company representative with authority participate in the meetings, someone that is not a PR person, a hired political consultant, or a local fixer. Town Meeting has offered them a seat at the table. Let’s hope they will fill that seat responsibly.”

Precinct 6 Town Meeting Member William S. Brown was the lone member who declined to support the measure – by abstaining from the vote. Brown, who previously told The Saugus Advocate that he supported an extension of the ash landfill as part of an HCA, said he could not support the creation of a closure committee. “It’s not town property,” Brown said of the landfill.

“How do we make plans for other people’s property? It’s not ours to make plans for. I can’t support this. That’s why I abstained from the vote,” he said.

What it will take for WIN to prevail

WIN’s chief spokesperson Urban and other company representatives have advocated tenaciously in support of expanding the ash landfill near the trash-to-energy incinerator on Route 107. But under current state environmental regulations, expansion of the ash landfill in Saugus would not be allowed.

The HCA, which selectmen supported a year ago on a 3-2 vote as a precautionary measure in case the state weakens environmental regulations, has no legal basis. Furthermore, any HCA would have to be negotiated by the town manager and wouldn’t take effect unless the state allowed the company to expand its ash landfill. The last two state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioners have said that no expansion of the ash landfill would be allowed under the current state environmental regulations.

If the state loosened the regulations at the ash landfill, the Board of Health would have authority to conduct site modification hearings to ultimately decide whether and how expansion of the ash landfill would proceed. Then the town manager would have authority to negotiate an agreement with WIN Waste; Saugus would receive $20 million over the next 20 years while WIN Waste could continue use of the ash landfill, according to the nonbinding HCA supported by a majority of the selectmen. It would be up to Crabtree to dictate the terms of any agreement.

Several months ago, WIN Waste began trucking ash to a company disposal site in Shrewsbury in an effort to prolong the life of the ash landfill. The company announced that six trucks a day were leaving the plant, traveling from Route 107 South to Route 60 East to Route 1A South to Route 90 West. WIN Waste officials told the Board of Health that the trucks would transport about 4,500 tons of ash offsite per month, adding life to a landfill that one company official said last year was expected to reach its capacity by the end of 2025.

Selectman Michael Serino told Town Meeting members “Saugus, you can do better” than expanding the landfill for another two decades. “Continued dumping of toxic ash is not in the best interests of our public or environmental health,” Serino said.

He noted that instead of accepting $20 million from WIN as part of an HCA, the town could receive a potential $1.2 million a year from a solar farm being located at the ash landfill site. An industrial park was another possible option.

Serino and Panetta both opposed the HCA supported by a majority of the selectmen last year. Now they will play key roles in advocating the timetable and terms for closing the ash landfill.

Meanwhile, WIN could continue trucking its ash to a properly lined landfill in Shrewsbury “with zero impact on Saugus,” Manoogian said.