BPW urges City Council to defeat landfill ban; private operation of facility considered

The Board of Public Works is opposing a change to the city’s code of ordinances that would ban landfills within water supply protection districts. Last Thursday night, at a special public hearing, BPW Chair Terry Culhane asked city councilors to vote against the amendment, which he called “overly restrictive” in its language.

If passed by a simple majority of the council, the amendment would block the proposed expansion of the city-owned regional landfill on Glendale Road.

“We’ve had the landfill appraised, and it’s worth approximately $10 million,” said Culhane. “If we, like South Hadley, were to lease it to an outside company who would run a landfill at that spot….  I think it’s worth a discussion.”

Culhane said that the BPW does not want to “slam the door” on a number of  potential uses for the site, such as recycling and hazardous waste collection.

(BPW member James Dostal read a prepared statement summarizing the board’s position on the proposed anti-landfill ordinance. Video courtesy of Adam Cohen)

Former council president James Dostal, a retired city public works employee and now a member of BPW, read a prepared statement that summarized the BPW’s position on the proposed amendment to Chapter 325 of the city’s code of ordinances.

“In summary, the BPW believes that this proposed amendment to Chapter 325 is not warranted,” read Dostal. “The wording as proposed seems to be overly restrictive and raises questions about whether the Glendale Road site could be used in the future for recycling, composting, or any other solid waste type facility.”

Existing state and local environmental regulations concerning landfills are “rigorous,” said the BPW statement, which argued that an additional layer of regulation is unnecessary.

“This landfill can occur in a zone II without detriment to the environment,” read Dostal.

The BPW has completed a market appraisal of the the proposed Phase 5 landfill expansion, said Dostal, who noted that the city could solicit proposals from private companies to purchase air space rights at an expanded landfill. “The estimated net present value of the air space rights for the Phase 5 expansion was estimated to be in the range of $7.8 million to $12.3 million. This revenue stream would be paid to the city over the estimated 28 years of Phase 5 landfill operations.”

In 2005, it was determined that the city’s regional landfill on Glendale Road is located with a Zone II recharge area for the Maloney well, a back-up drinking water supply for the city of Easthampton which is fed by the Barnes Aquifer. State environmental regulations prohibit landfill construction within Zone II aquifer recharge areas.

In 2006, however, the city was granted a waiver of these regulations, allowing the expansion to move forward. The waiver, granted by the Department of Environmental Protection, was based upon the results of a “contaminant transport model” commissioned by the city which predicted no significant impact to the Maloney well from leachate leaving the landfill. BAPAC and anti-landfill activists contested the validity of the model, arguing that a number of its assumptions were poorly considered. The city countered that the model had been prepared by a qualified firm and had been scrupulously reviewed by the DEP.

The proposed changed to the city’s code of ordinances, described by proponents as a “non-zoning” mechanism to block the expansion once and for all, is the latest effort by the anti-landfill citizens’ group called “Water Not Waste,” which is most visibly led by Mimi Odgers, a Glendale Road wife and mother.

In a non-binding referendum promoted by Water Not Waste last November, 64% of Northampton voters said “no” to the expansion of the landfill. In March, the City Council instructed the Board of Public Works to halt its efforts to expand the facility, citing the need to focus upon planning for solid waste options once the current landfill cells close in mid-2012. More recently, opponents of the landfill expansion submitted a citizens’ petition asking the city council to pass zoning that would prohibit landfills over aquifers. The zoning petition died in committee, and was never advanced to the full City Council for debate.

The Barnes Aquifer Protection Advisory Committee (BAPAC), a regional environmental organization, came out swinging on Thursday night in support of the proposed landfill ban.

“BAPAC has reviewed the water quality monitoring reports by Brown and Caldwell. The data in these reports clearly show that leachate is leaving the landfill…. It is clear that the landfill is impacting groundwater and will continue to do so for years to come,” wrote BAPAC, in a statement read into the record by City Council President David Narkewicz.

The measure, which was sponsored by Councilors Narkewicz, Schwartz, LaBarge, and Tacy, will be taken up by the full City Council at its July 8 meeting.

The text of the proposed ordinance reads as follows: “No new landfills or open dumps as defined in 310 CMR 19 as amended, or expansions of existing facilities or new landfill cells, shall be allowed over aquifers, or in the Zone II protection area of an aquifer, or any area zoned as a Water Supply Protection District.”

The city has been pushing for an expansion of the facility since 1999, when an Environmental Notification Form was first filed with the state.