Landfill, vol. XXXV

I have to go help my sister move into her temporary dwelling (house sold, deal for house they were buying fell through) so I won't be online much today.

I refer all people seeking background landfill info to Ari Herzog's blog.

But I also would refer people here, to the Globe archives where all the landfill stories by Kay Lazar can be viewed. You can see that this contract the city signed in 1984 accepts responsibility for the sludge the city dumped at the site, at least according to the story.

Note this Sept. 30, 2007, piece, which says in part:

Citing a 1984 contract that the city signed with the facility's previous owner agreeing to "accept all responsibility" for environmental concerns from city sludge dumped there, the landfill's current owner is demanding that Newburyport accept full responsibility for related cleanup costs ...

Now, New Ventures' lawyers have raised the stakes, saying information they have uncovered from 21 years ago indicates the city generated and disposed of approximately 30 tons of municipal waste per day and had a history of violations that resulted in state action.

"The landfill is a wound the city inflicted upon itself, and the city is obliged under [state environmental law] to cooperate with New Ventures in its effort to close that wound," states a Sept. 6 letter to Mayor John Moak from New Ventures attorney Richard Bennett.

The letter includes a copy of a 1986 Boston Globe article about state action against the city and the landfill's previous owner for violations of trash and sludge disposal requirements. It also quotes a state environmental official as saying the landfill has a "history of compliance problems."

(I remember at least one City Councillor, who I was interviewing about his re-election bid for the Current, being upset with Lazar about this story.)

[Attorney Richard] Bowen also said the city rejects New Ventures' statements that the city bears responsibility for cleaning, capping, or closing the landfill.

"We have asked him to give us all the documents in his possession that would substantiate their claim that we have responsibility," Bowen said. "If he can produce the documents, we are happy to review them and do a further assessment. But until they step up and do that, we are not going to credit their claim."

Again, this was in Sept. of last year. Seems as if they stepped up and did that - at a very opportune moment.