A chance to be heard

Board of Health’s Landfill Subcommittee will accept public comment next week on WIN Waste Innovations’ $15 million offer

  Is $15 million adequate compensation to the town in return for allowing WIN Waste Innovations to continue using its ash landfill on Route 107 for an additional 25 years?

  Board of Selectmen Chair Anthony Cogliano this week said he’s not ready to accept the Host Community Agreement proposed by WIN Waste Innovations. “We’ve come a long way since the committee was formed but we still have a long way to go before an agreement is in place,” said Cogliano, who co-chairs the Board of Health’s Landfill Subcommittee. “I do believe we will get there, but I’m not satisfied with the plan as it’s been presented. Saugus deserves more!”

  Cogliano declined to give a specific dollar amount that he would like to see the town receive in the offer from WIN, which unveiled its proposal on July 27. He said subcommittee members plan to “debate the proposal with WIN” when it meets again next Wednesday (Aug. 24) at 7 p.m. in the second floor auditorium at Town Hall.

  The subcommittee will accept feedback from members of the state legislative delegation, other local elected officials and the public. “Questions can be submitted to Corrinne Riley in advance but can also be asked in person,” Cogliano said. Selectman Riley is the secretary of the Landfill Subcommittee. Her email is criley@Saugus-ma.gov.

  WIN Waste Innovations is expected to reach capacity at the ash landfill located near its trash-to-energy plant within two years, according to WIN Waste Innovations Vice President of Environment James Connolly. “What we are asking is that we continue using the monofil on the same footprint with the same environmental controls, rather than trucking the ash to facilities that could be hours away, with environmental impacts that long-haul trucking would present,” Connolly told the subcommittee last month.

  “We’re proposing to share economic benefits,” he said.

  The key component of the agreement outlined by Connolly in his PowerPoint presentation to the Board of Health’s Landfill Subcommittee is the one providing “a $15-million economic benefit – a lump sum payment of $12 million plus $125,000 in 25 annual payments (for a total additional value of $3 million).”

  “If required to spend more than $5 million in capital to operate beyond Valley Fill, WIN Waste pays the town $10 million, including: approximately $10 million paid at a rate of $2.50 per ton.” The PowerPoint presentation also noted that capital improvements made at the plant would generate additional tax revenue.

  WIN Waste Innovation’s proposed Host Community Agreement, if approved by the town and the state, would also require WIN Waste Innovations to:

• Reduce NO_x and other emissions below current permit limits in place at time of agreement that are protective of public health and environment.
• Conduct optimization testing to determine levels of additional NO_x reductions.
• Fund the installation of one standalone, ambient NO_x monitoring station in Saugus.
• Request the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to update its 2016 health study of Saugus residents as it relates to the plant’s operations and the landfill.
• Provide $26,000 per year to fund an independent third-party consultant to inspect the waste-to-energy facility and monofil.

  “Being a good corporate citizen and community partner is paramount in what we do and we present the proposed Host Community Agreement in that spirit,” Connolly said.

  The subcommittee will meet several times before making its recommendation to the full Board of Health on whether to accept or reject WIN Waste’s proposed Community Host Agreement.

  It’s important to note that it will take many more meetings involving several town and state agencies before a Host Community Agreement becomes a reality, according to Cogliano. A major obstacle to any deal would be whether the state Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) would allow extending the life of the ash landfill.

  “According to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), no new landfills or expansions of landfills are allowed in an Area of Critical Environmental Concern,” Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Debra Panetta said.

  She referred to a letter written last year by MassDEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg, who stated: “While an applicant is free to propose a site assignment modification, and MassDEP will review information submitted, based upon the information presently before MassDEP, the facility fails to meet the necessary site suitability criteria to allow for expansion within the ACEC and therefore would not receive a positive site suitability determination.

  “Without a positive site suitability determination from MassDEP, a proposal to amend the facility’s site assignment to allow for vertical expansion would not advance to the Saugus Board of Health for consideration.”