Invitation Declined

WIN Waste Innovations gave its official “no thank you” to an offer from the Ash Landfill Closure Committee to participate as a nonvoting member

By Mark E. Vogler

The main order of business at the organizational meeting of the newly formed Ash Landfill Closure Committee was following through on repeated efforts to include WIN Waste Innovations in future talks about timetables and specific matters related to closing the ash landfill located near the trash-to-energy incinerator on Route 107.

WIN didn’t have any representatives attending the July 1 meeting held in the crowded first floor conference room at Saugus Town Hall. But a spokeswoman for the company sent an email to Board of Selectmen Chair Debra Panetta – a member of the five-member committee – expressing WIN’s decision to refrain from involvement with the committee’s proceedings. “While we do appreciate the offer, we respectfully decline the invitation to participate on a committee that has been formed explicitly to attempt to dictate the future use of our private property,” WIN’s Sr. Director of Communications & Community, Mary Urban, told Panetta.

“Our focus remains on finding a path forward for the most environmentally friendly option which we believe is to continue to utilize our monofill to safely manage the residual ash from our adjacent waste-to-energy facility while also providing tens of millions of dollars in economic and environmental benefit to Saugus,” Urban continued in her email. “We will continue to send updates about the plant in addition to attending the monthly BOH meetings. We would also be happy to provide any further communication about our operations that you may need. Thank you.”

Panetta had made several attempts to solicit WIN’s participation in the committee meetings before Urban emailed back, declining the invitations.

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 with the purpose of identifying 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.

A standing invitation

Precinct 10 Town Meeting Member Peter Manoogian, who was voted chair of the Ash Landfill Closure Committee, told members that the committee should continue to send WIN invitations to participate while continuing to brief the company on the committee’s future meetings. The group’s next meeting is set for 6:15 p.m. on Sept. 16 in the first floor conference room at Saugus Town Hall. “At this time, they’re not going to attend,” Manoogian told the five-member committee.

Manoogian reminded members that representatives of the Aggregate Industries Saugus Quarry had also initially rejected offers to participate in closure of its quarry, but later joined in the closure committee talks with the town.

Manoogian broached the question as to whether the Town Meeting-created panel should continue to meet despite WIN’s refusal to participate in the proceedings. It was unanimous that the committee continue with its work as endorsed nearly unanimously by Town Meeting.

“Maybe they will change their minds,” Panetta told her colleagues.

“They’re going to have to close. Let’s have the discussion,” Panetta said.

Precinct 10 Town Meeting Member Carla A. Scuzzarella, another Town Meeting member appointed to the committee, agreed that the committee should proceed with its work. “I think we should continue and keep inviting them,” Scuzzarella said.

“We can’t ignore the fact that we need a plan [for closure],” she said.

Selectman Michael Serino, a longtime participant in talks between the town and WIN over issues involving the incinerator and ash landfill, stressed that it is important for him and fellow committee members to move forward – with or without WIN’s involvement. “I say we continue,” Serino said.

“The state has been after WIN to develop a post-closure plan,” he added.

Town Administrative Aide Jeanette Meredith, Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree’s designate to the committee, said she will “keep reaching out” to local WIN representative Jack Walsh to get WIN to participate in the committee’s activities.

Most of the seats in the small conference room were taken by citizens from Lynn, Revere, Saugus and the Boston area. They included several Saugus Town Meeting members, a representative of the Saugus Board of Health and members of regional environmental groups that have been monitoring WIN-related activities.

There is no “end date” on the committee’s existence, according to Manoogian, who authored the article that created the committee.

“We will give a report to Town Meeting every time Town Meeting convenes,” Manoogian said.

The committee’s ongoing agenda

Manoogian stressed that it is important for the committee to act as a fact-finding body to provide the town with important information related to the ash landfill and potential alternative uses of the landfill once the state has established a specific deadline for its closure. “We need to become familiar with everything that’s related to this landfill,” Manoogian told committee members.

“Information gathering – what’s out there in the public realm. Maybe another person will go down to DEP with me to look at what’s in the public realm,” he said.

Several committee members expressed concerns with WIN’s reluctance to give up hopes of future expansion of the ash landfill – an unlikely scenario, considering the current position of the state Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). The last two state DEP commissioners have said that no expansion of the ash landfill would be allowed under the current state environmental regulations.

Members also said they wonder about WIN’s continued support of a nonbinding Host Community Agreement (HCA), which selectmen supported a year ago on a 3-2 vote as a precautionary measure in case the state weakens environmental regulations related to the landfill. That HCA has no legal basis, under state law and under the Town of Saugus Charter. 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.

If the state loosens 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. Saugus would receive $20 million over the next 20 years while WIN Waste could continue use of the ash landfill, according to the hypothetical HCA supported by a majority of the selectmen.

“Selectmen have no authority to engage in a Host Community Agreement,” Manoogian told the Ash Landfill Closure Committee last week.

“It’s like they’re [WIN officials] trying to turn the tables backwards to suit themselves. It doesn’t make sense,” Manoogian said.

“Fortunately, the town manager has said he doesn’t have authority to do this [negotiate an HCA at the present time]. I think they’re hoping there will be a groundswell of support to give them what they want,” he said.

Manoogian reminded the committee that WIN is so committed to continued use of the ash landfill that this past spring it 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. “They’re taking 50 percent of the ash out every week,” Manoogian said.

He added that he believes company officials are “hoping that something will happen … the town government will change,” enabling the company to expand the ash landfill for several decades.

“I know this – they’ll never give up,” Manoogian said.

“Neither will we,” he added.