Landfill in the news again ... and again

At tonight's City Council meeting, Kathleen O'Connor Ives (councillor-at-large) will be presenting a draft ordinance to amend the city's atmospheric pollution ordinance and impose fines on violators.

Who knew we had one of those ordinances?

This relates to the Crow Lane landfill, of course. Mayor Donna Holaday told me in an interview for the Current last week that the Noisome Trade designation expired when New Ventures stopped bringing loads of C&D to the site (I gather the 'noisome trade' was the trucks rumbling in).

I'll write more about the ordinance after tonight's meeting, but the first link in this post is to an account in today's Daily News.

Meanwhile, landfill neighbors this past week were again complaining about that mysterious burning smell and someone as distant as lower Warren St. said she smelled it this week also and reported it on the Virtual Wolfe Tavern message board on the Comity.org website.

I think I mentioned that I had also smelled it, last winter. It's a very acrid smell, which I thought was most similar to the smell of burning rubber, although Comity.org writes and says that it reminds one of wood that has already burned - as in, is there burned wood in the landfill?

Holaday told me later in the week that she has met Mr. Thibeault (owner of the landfill) I think three times and that he is asking for a meeting with her as mayor. So far she is showing a lot of spine on this issue (and remember, she is a lawyer) so let's keep our fingers crossed!