“It’s not a permittable activity”

MassDEP official tells forum that current state laws won’t allow expansion of WIN Waste Innovation’s ash landfill

  Plenty of uncertainty remains about what’s ahead for WIN Waste Innovations’ waste disposal operations in Saugus after a three-hour forum titled “The Future of the Ash Landfill” concluded Wednesday night before a packed second floor auditorium at Town Hall.

  But Eric Worrall, the regional director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (MassDEP) Northeast Regional Office, left no doubts that expansion of the ash landfill near WIN’s trash-to-energy plant on Route 107 can’t happen under current state laws and regulations. “The current administration says it’s not a permittable activity,” Worrall said. “That I can say with certainty.”

  That was Worrall’s response to a grilling from Precinct 2 Town Meeting Member Christopher Riley, who wanted to know whether MassDEP can assure there wouldn’t be expansion under any circumstances. Worrall’s response was similar to the answer he gave others who asked similar questions at the Wednesday night forum: There will be no expansion unless current state law and regulations are changed. That was the most significant takeaway from the public meeting hosted by State Rep. Jessica Giannino (D-Revere), whose district includes Precincts 3 and 10 in Saugus, state Rep. Jeffrey Turco (D-Winthrop) and the Alliance for Health and the Environment.

  “The current law doesn’t allow this – and that’s under a Republican Administration,” Turco stressed in his introductory remarks to the audience. He said it would be doubtful that state Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat who is heavily favored to be elected governor in November, would support changing laws that would allow an expansion of the landfill.

  Passionate citizens – both for and against expansion of WIN Waste Innovations’ ash landfill – spent much of the meeting arguing the merits of any plans to expand the ash landfill. Several people talked about cancer deaths in their families and neighborhoods, suspecting the WIN plant was to blame. Others praised WIN for being a good citizen. Eugene Decareau, 92, said that if it were up to him, he’d give the company more burners and let them produce all of the town’s electricity.

  Those who attended the forum also got an opportunity to ask Worrall and another MassDEP official – Mark Fairbrother – questions related to the ash landfill and WIN’s incineration and waste disposal operations.

  The community meeting was held just eight days after Saugus selectmen approved a tentative deal with WIN Waste Innovations that would eliminate tipping fees for waste disposal in return for 20 more years of ash landfill. WIN had proposed a Host Community Agreement (HCA) to pay the town up to $18 million in return for permission to extend the life of its ash landfill 25 years. The adoption of any HCA would be contingent upon approval by MassDEP and the town’s Board of Health.

WIN continues with its plans

  The two MassDEP officials confirmed that WIN has not submitted any proposal to expand the ash landfill.

  WIN issued a brief statement to The Saugus Advocate late Wednesday night in response to the forum. “Working with the Landfill Committee and Board of Selectmen, we have advanced the concept of continuing to use our landfill and set a path to a Host Community Agreement on how to share the resulting environmental and economic benefits with the Town,” WIN Waste Innovations Vice President of Environment Jim Connolly said.

  “Once we finalize the agreement, we will develop the concept and begin a permitting process to advance the project. We look forward to making the environmental case for the project and engaging in a thorough, transparent and fact-based evaluation by the DEP,” Connolly said.

  Board of Selectmen Chair Anthony Cogliano, one of the three selectmen who voted by a slim 3-2 margin to support a deal that would extend the ash landfill 20 more years, went to the lectern to argue in WIN’s behalf. “The burden of proof is on WIN Waste” to prove to MassDEP and the town Board of Health that there are no environmental or health problems resulting from an expansion of the ash landfill. “I trust DEP to oversee the permitting process,” Cogliano said.

  “This is a good thing for Saugus. Let the process move forward. I have 60 letters in support of the ash landfill,” he said before taking a folder full of letters and presenting them to the MassDEP officials.

  Revere Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto, who has been to several recent Saugus meetings to support WIN, said he isn’t advocating for a change in current laws. Instead, he stressed, he is confident that WIN would receive “an objective evaluation” from MassDEP on its proposal.

A key MassDEP document

  A chief obstacle to WIN’s plans is a letter that MassDEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg wrote last November to state Rep. Turco, whose district includes 45 percent of Revere and all of Winthrop. The Suuberg letter notes that “Any future proposals for expansion would require a modification to the facility’s site assignment and approval from MassDEP and the Saugus Board of Health.”

  “As the landfill is located within an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), an expansion of the landfill (including vertical expansion) would need to meet the site suitability criteria in the Regulations with respect to the site assignment,” Suuberg continued.

  “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,” he wrote.

  “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.”

  One of the panelists at the forum – Kirstie Pecci, the executive director of Just Zero, an organization seeking to advance community-centered Zero Waste solutions – stressed that current laws wouldn’t allow a landfill to be built in the Rumney Marsh and wouldn’t allow a landfill to be built the way WIN’s ash landfill was built. If MassDEP determines that a site is suitable, the Saugus Board of Health would decide whether to grant a site assignment. “The rest of this cannot happen without a positive site suitability by MassDEP,” Pecci said.

  “Commissioner Suuberg went out of his way to write a letter he didn’t have to write…. The law would have to change here,” she said.

Where do the lawmakers stand?

  Precinct 10 Town Meeting Member Peter Manoogian asked Giannino and Turco whether they would support changing the laws, thus enabling WIN to proceed with expansion of its ash landfill, which is estimated to reach full capacity in late 2025 or early 2026.

  “Absolutely not,” Giannino answered.

  “Absolutely not,” Turco replied.

  Manoogian asked state Rep. Donald Wong (R-Saugus) whether he would support any change in the law that would allow WIN to expand the ash landfill. “When I speak, you’ll hear my answer,” Wong replied.

  Wong read from a prepared statement when he went to the lectern to address the forum. “I trust the Board of Health and DEP to do their jobs,” Wong said.

  “We want you to make decisions based on science and data, which I know you will do,” he said. He also said he supported “a public/private partnership between the town and WIN Waste.”

  Some Saugus residents and citizens from neighboring towns dread what happens after the landfill is closed. “Ballard Street and Route 107 will be inundated with trash trucks,” Precinct 10 Town Meeting Member Peter Delios said.

  Delios, who was among the Landfill Subcommittee members who voted to recommend WIN’s proposed HCA to the Board of Selectmen, insists that he’s “neutral” on the issue. “I made a vote to move it to selectmen…A few of my constituents got angry with me and I became Public Enemy Number One,” he said.

  Saugus Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Debra Panetta served as facilitator of the forum, introducing the speakers and monitoring the night’s agenda, so that everyone who wanted to speak or ask questions was recognized. Panetta, a longtime critic of the trash-to-energy plant and one of the two selectmen who opposed approval of the HCA with WIN – and specifically expansion of the ash landfill – suggested that it’s time to assemble a closure committee to oversee activities once the landfill is closed.

  Rep. Turco said there’s a process that will be followed when the landfill eventually closes. He said it’s “a 30-year process of monitoring the landfill and making sure the landfill’s integrity isn’t compromised.”

  MassDEP’s Worrall said that whatever is in the ash landfill will remain. “The ash won’t be removed and will continue to be monitored.”

  Rep. Giannino said it will be time to focus on recycling, composting and other alternatives to burning. “What’s next in Saugus isn’t unique in Saugus,” she said.

  The Alliance for Health and the Environment represents local public officials from Saugus and Revere and state and local environmental organizations concerned about waste incineration and trash disposal in Saugus. The Alliance focuses on raising awareness about public health and environmental impacts of waste incineration and associated ash disposal activities, reducing pollution associated with waste incineration and ash disposal and promoting environmental justice for communities impacted by waste incineration and ash disposal.