Good mornin'

Read this story - it's a riot. All about Ward 1 City Councillor Larry McCavitt (my ward councillor). Awwww, the Daily News made up with Councillor McCavitt (sorry, couldn't resisist - like the DN couldn't resist noting that Mayor Moak said McCavitt was a bully).

McCavitt belongs to/formed the Citizens Chapter 91 Committee, a watchdog group that attempts to make sure waterfront development complies with state DEP guidelines that protect public waterways.

Chuck Lagasse has his say:

Lagasse is partnering with Stephen Karp's New England Development to one day develop 8 acres of the city's waterfront. He feels McCavitt's committee is unproductive.

"Instead of working along with us, they tend to want to be adversaries, while we welcome working with anybody upfront," he said. "It's going to be a very public process when it takes place."

ha ha ha ha ... oops, sorry ... McCavitt has fought a few of Lagasse's plans for the waterfront, which he and wife Ann used to own most of before they sold it to Stephen Karp. You know, like the hotel without room for the number of parking spaces required under city law.

Lagasse feels much of it is unnecessary, saying that any time his company's waterfront projects have been challenged by McCavitt, the state has sided with New England Development.

"I think there's a lot of public agencies that basically offer many, many guidelines for waterfront activities and development, and we tend to follow those guidelines very rigidly," Lagasse said.

"The state's oversight, as well as the city's oversight, has thrown out most of the claims he's ever had with us. In our case, we tend to go by the book, so his oversight doesn't matter. If the state wants us to change it, then we would do it."

ha ha ha ha

But we all love the DEP, right? An agency that is so good at enforcing its own rules, right? What's that word ... gee I'm still groggy from sleep ... language ... Lancome ... er ... landfill? Yep, that's the one!

And how about Plum Island, where DEP has allowed a good portion of the island to be covered by paving and immense homes?

This all fits in nicely with my previous post about the relationship our city has with the state - and by 'the state' I mean the DEP.

And note that Lagasse's last comment is the same as McCavitt made at Monday's City Council meeting - if the state thought we were doing something wrong, they'd say so. He was referring to the sewer plant's permit to discharge treated water into the river.

ha ha ha ha

Seriously, though - I know DEP has many divisions and the waterfront, Plum Island and the landfill are all handled through different parts of the agency. But I have seen Lagasse's DEP permit for The Black Cow, and he has fought it through appeals and ignored the parts he does not like ... and thus has thumbed his nose at this city since day 1, as far as I can tell.

DEP does nothing about violations of licenses issued under Chapter 91 until some citizen or citizen's group complains. Did you know that?

... but I get up again WARNING: this post contains humorous elements

I love the way the City Council uses the DEP.

When they're talking about the landfill, the DEP is bad and evil and untrustworthy.

Get away from our city, you DEP. You can't take over closing the landfill, you scoundrels. The only thing worse than New Ventures is YOU, DEP!

But when they're talking about the wastewater treatment facility, discharge permits and revolving state loans, the DEP is benign and all-knowing.

*Extra humor alert*

Pretty, nice DEP. Come over here and sit on my lap. Give Newburyport a hug, you silly billy. No, of course we don't want you to change.

It's hilarious when they do this all in the same meeting.

To be fair, it was a very long meeting so they may not have noticed themselves contradicting themselves.

Food for thought

I was reading (and enjoying) City Councillor Ed Cameron's haiku (at the bottom of the post) about our snap snowfall of last night and thought I should also point out his earlier post, from Jan. 28, about construction and demolition debris.

I was also intrigued by the anonymous comment to the latter post, including this about the landfill neighbors:

If you'd leave them high and dry, you'd leave any one of us high and dry.

It does tend to make one think ...

Where can we get this deal?

I got a press release today from the Attorney General's office. It's about a New Hampshire man pleading guilty to charges of failing to report hazardous materials that were buried on the pig farm he owned in Hudson, MA.

What particularly caught my eye was something at the bottom of the release:

This case was investigated by the Massachusetts Environmental Crimes Strike Force (ECSF), an interagency unit that includes prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office, Environmental Police Officers assigned to the Attorney General’s Office, and investigators and engineers from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). The ECSF is overseen by Attorney General Coakley, MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt and Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian A. Bowles. The ECSF investigates and prosecutes crimes that harm the state’s water, air, and that pose a significant threat to human health.

Members of the public who have information regarding a potential environmental crime are encouraged to contact the MassDEP Environmental Strike Force Hotline at 1-888-VIOLATE (846-5283) or the Attorney General’s Office at 617-727-2200.

There's a whole strike force?

Here's some more:

The investigation began when authorities found over 90 drums of chemical waste buried on Zina’s property in Hudson. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) first became aware of the buried drums in March 2006 when it was investigating a development plan on a portion of the farm. During the course of this investigation, investigators from MassDEP conducted a site inspection and unearthed a total of 96 drums buried on the farm. Tests on soil samples taken in 2007 indicated that two hazardous chemicals, toluene and methylene chloride, had leaked into the soil and toluene was found in a nearby stream. Both chemicals, dangerous to human health and the environment, were found in large quantities inside of the drums. MassDEP spent $60,000 to clean up the farm after this discovery.

Gee, DEP cleaned it up for this guy? He was sentenced to 3 years probation and was fined $25,000.

Oh, well, this explains everything!

I found this online; it's the abstract of a 2000 article by DPS Director Brendan O'Regan at Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation.

For the City of Newburyport, MA, a small New England city located at the mouth of the Merrimack River in northeastern Massachusetts (see Figure 1), disposal of the biosolids from the Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) was reaching a crisis stage. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, faced with a sludge that consisted of a large metals concentration as well as a pretreatment program in its infancy, it was thought that the sludge would never be clean enough to compost. In fact, it was questionable as to whether the sludge could continue to be disposed of at a landfill.

The City's proposed solution to this problem was to construct a unit operation that would thermally treat the WWTF by-product, resulting in a stabilized sludge. In addition, a double-lined landfill would also be built for final disposal of the “char” residue. The Sludge Stabilization Facility (SSF) was to be built adjacent to the DPW maintenance garage and the new landfill was to be built adjacent to existing landfill on Crow Lane (see Figure 2).

Neighbors to the DPW facility and the Crow Lane area, as well as other City residents protesting this Sludge Stabilization Facility and double lined Landfill (SSF&L) plan. They saw this proposal as burning sludge and they did not want this process to take place in the City of Newburyport. After a long and - pardon the pun - heated political debate, the SSF&L plan was defeated in 1993. The WWTF continued to landfill its biosolids, realizing the benefits of a more established pretreatment program. In the Summer of 1996, after an extensive review of the monthly and quarterly biosolids analytical data, the Newburyport Sewer Department petitioned the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to reclassify the sludge its produced at the WWTF to Type A, going through the Application of Suitability process. Following an extensive sampling and analysis program and the resulting submittals to DEP, the WWTF's Biosolids were reclassified as Type A in November 1996 by DEP.

Following this determination, the Newburyport Sewer Department entered into negotiations with private sludge composting facilities in the area and negotiated a three-year deal with a nearby composting facility. As a result of this effort, the
Newburyport Sewer Department has realized a 43% reduction in its biosolids disposal costs and the City receives up to 1,000 cubic yards per year of composted material to use on its parks, cemeteries and other City related matters.

So ... I'm going to go ahead and assume New Ventures has this little ditty ... you can draw your own conclusions.

DEP re-classified the bio-solids in the WWTF sludge in 1996 ...

Then DEP turned around in 2007 and went into the landfill using M.G.L. Chapter 21E as the reason ... this is from the 2007 civil action (Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. New Ventures Associates, LLC):

For all the reasons set forth in the memorandum of law submitted in support of
this motion, these response actions are immediately required to prevent and
control noxious hydrogen sulfide gas releases from the Landfill that are
creating a public nuisance and threatening the public health, safety, and
welfare.

Oops, DEP (not that this hasn't already been extensively discussed).

I guess I am going bananas about the landfill ... and since I didn't feel like paying $12.50 (plus tax) for the whole O'Regan article, this is all any of us gets.

Landfill meeting tomorrow night

The Ad Hoc Landfill Committee is meeting at 6 p.m. tomorrow (Thurs.) night in the BOH "conference room" (the big table in the small open area in the basement of City Hall).

Maybe some revelations will issue forth from the mouths of our community leaders!

By the way, I talked to DEP today and the spokesman said the investigation into the recent flare incident is still ongoing so they had no comment.

(Did you like the headline about "not enough flare" on my last story? I swiped that from the movie "Office Space" ... I don't often write the headlines; or if I do, they are not often retained. Did you know that? Reporters don't usually make up the headlines?)

I asked him about DEP's seemingly ultra-presence in our small community: the landfill, the waterfront, Plum Island, the wastewater treatment facility ... he rather glumly agreed with me that it did, indeed, seem as if they are involved in a lot here ... as someone has suggested (to me), maybe they should open an office downtown!

I did not suggest that to the DEP man. He seemed down enough. Maybe he was having a bad day. He was almost chipper yesterday, when I first made contact ... until I told him what I wanted, that is.

Mention the word "landfill" and people tend to go all glum.

But can you imagine the lines at their door, the flashing lights on the phones indicating incoming calls, the hidey-hole they'd have to install for flash exits from the scene?

Oh, I'm just messing with the DEP.

Actually, the spokesman is very pleasant, usually answers the phone (I love him just for that), always returns calls and always calls back when he says he will.

These days, that says a lot!

Thoughts on the landfill battle

So now that the city is being sued over landfill issues, I wonder if non-neighboring residents give a hoot yet?

There is a hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on July 14, at Suffolk Superior Court. It seems our issues are lumped together with those of Everett because there is also a preliminary injunction hearing about Wood Waste (landfill owner's Everett company) at the same time.

"GO AND SAVE EVERETT FROM THIBEAULT!" writes the moderator of the Everett Average Citizen.

So, to recap the latest: Landfill owner also owns a facility in Everett, where he recycles construction debris that has then been coming to our landfill. Due to cease and desist and various other orders, he has not been able to do so with any consistency for some time. Debris is building up in Everett, causing similar olfactory distress to what neighbors of our landfill suffer in that city, some 30 miles south of us.

Landfill owner also plans to buy from the City of Everett abutting land to Wood Waste facility to expand and re-develop the site into a hotel or biotechnology center, according to the Boston Globe.

The Wood Waste facility would be moved to another (contaminated) site owner plans to buy, also in Everett, which he would negotiate to buy, clean, and develop into a "massive" office, retail, and residential center. (Boston Globe)

So you can see what William Thiebault, the owner, has at stake here and how very much our City Council's decision to not open up our Host City Agreement with the aim of expanding Thibeault's dumping at the Crow Lane landfill for the rest of this year put a monkey wrench in his plans.

You also can see what a bargaining position we are in - well, except that the city dumped contaminated sludge at the landfill prior to Thibeault purchasing it and may be liable for cleanup costs there.

This is the hammer hanging over the city's head, so to speak. (I wonder why no one can say if the city is liable, or not? Someone must know at this point.)

Someday, somehow, this man is going to prevail. You know he will. Money talks (and hires lots of legal assistance).

All we can do now is make a statement to the Attorney General, the DEP, and whoever else is letting this man run amok in our city, in Everett, and who knows where else.

Landfill, vol. XXXIV

I almost forgot to link to this letter to the editor of the Daily News, from Jim Stiles (former candidate for mayor, for you people from Everett).

This is the last paragraph:

Although the course forward is not easy, it is clear. We cannot trust New Ventures and we cannot trust the Department of Environmental Protection. The city must enforce existing agreements, and do so aggressively. When the terms of the existing agreements are met and the huge liabilities owed by New Ventures to the city are paid in full, the city might then consider changes to the Host Community Agreement that, among other things, will give the city the kinds of controls that it should have insisted on from the beginning. Yes, the landfill should be capped, but it should not be done in a way that further endangers the health and well-being of the people of Newburyport.

I was yesterday talking to another recent mayoral candidate, and he said he thought it was time to bring in the federal government. Obviously the state is not on our side in this.

Landfill letter: thanks, Ben!

With grateful thanks to Ben for his assistance, here is the letter.

Click on images to enlarge.

Beach update

According to the Daily News, the sand is being moved off the center parking lot per an order from the DEP.

But the Department of Environmental Protection also wants a large pile of sand in the Center parking lot returned to an Olga Way storage area from which it came, a DEP spokesman said yesterday.

Police Chief Michael Reilly and Highway Superintendent Tim Leonard met Tuesday with a DEP representative to get the agency's approval to build up enough sand to create a rough incline from the Center parking lot to the beach, DEP spokesman Joe Ferson said. The dune had been scoured out by tidal action so that there was a precipitous drop to the beach.

The ramp was constructed, and as of yesterday, about half the remaining sand had been moved back to Olga Way. Front-end loaders were parked next to the pile at Plum Island Center, presumably to move the rest of the sand ...

(Newbury Selectman Vincent) Russo said Leonard had asked to be allowed to leave the extra sand at the Center, to avoid the fuel expense of transporting it back to Olga Way, but had been turned down by DEP representative Ron Stelline. (Hey, they must have read this post.)

Funny I don't see anyone squawking about moving sand that has been sitting on an asphalt parking lot for weeks back to Olga Way (also on the island). I seem to recall a local developer being criticized for dumping on his property in Newbury snow plowed from an asphalt parking lot in Newburyport ... must have been a bad dream.

Landfill: what's the deal with this deal?

I'm trying to make heads or tails out of the situation in which asphalt grindings are being allowed by the city's health department into the landfill on Crow Lane, starting Monday.

Following questions from concerned parties in the city, John Carrigan, Chief of the DEP's Solid Waste Management Section, sent to Ron Klodenski a fact sheet from the DEP's website.

It's about as clear as mud, but it seems as if asphalt grindings (which contain hydrocarbons and/or petroleum) are not allowed by DEP at a solid waste facility except on a temporary basis.

Asphalt pavement, brick and concrete are banned from disposal at solid waste facilities and cannot be disposed at landfills, incinerators or taken to transfer stations for subsequent transfer to a solid waste disposal facility unless conditions for an exception are met. (See 310 CMR 19.017)

310 CMR 19.017 says that:

(6) Exceptions. The Department may allow a facility or person to temporarily dispose or temporarily contract for the disposal of restricted materials, with prior notification and approval of the Department, under the following circumstances:

(a) the material is contaminated or is otherwise not acceptable for recycling or composting provided that the person who contaminated or rendered the material unfit for recycling or composting is notified and takes any action necessary to prevent a recurrence of the conditions which contaminated or rendered the material unfit; or
(b) the recycling or composting operation or end user to which the restricted material is normally sent declines to accept the material or is prohibited from accepting the material as a result of an administrative or judicial order, provided that an alternative recycling or composting operation or storage facility which will accept the material cannot be found within a reasonable time.

Devens, Mass., has a solid waste recycling facility:

We accept: Aggregate, Asphalt, Brick, Carpet, Ceiling Tiles, Concrete, Gypsum, Metal, Paper, Rubber, Shingles and Wood.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has established the waste ban regulations so that the materials listed above are now prohibited from landfill disposal.

The state apparently does not want to deal with the grindings in an appropriate manner. According to this report, the asphalt paving industry has an 80% recycling rate (per the president of the National Asphalt Pavement Association).

So DEP helps get rid of asphalt grindings and New Ventures (landfill owner) possibly makes more money by disposing of the material for the place that generated it (and who does road works, you might ask).

We already have gypsum (and who knows what else) and now we're getting asphalt. For cash considerations and what else?

Sold out again? Landfill update

According to an email from Ron Klodenski, the Mass. Attorney General, the DEP and New Ventures yesterday had come to an agreement that will probably allow the landfill owner to resume normal operations -- that is, trucking more demolition debris into Newburyport for deposit on Crow Lane. When operations might resume is unclear.

As I understand it, this agreement also makes it unnecessary for the Attorney General and DEP to continue their suit against the landfill owner for violations of the DEP's preliminary injunction of October 2006.

Klodenski notes that the city will not be shown the agreement, according to Health Director Jack Morris, until it has been signed, and thus will have no say in the matter whatsoever.

So it seems that the state will not be taking over the capping of the landfill. Details of the agreement may be released as early as next week.

Everthing in blue came from Ron.

Looks like I might need that boat in the photo ...?

Read the story in today's Daily News about the "imminent threat" to Plum Island. I am sitting in my miniscule cottage on PI right now, typing this. Yikes.

Even the Port Planet has joined in the general alarm, with the headline "Say Good-Bye to Plum Island!" in what I believe is the latest issue. Yikes!

But wait, I remember a certain City Councillor telling me a couple of weeks ago that he was warned by a science teacher in middle or high school about the high potential for a breach of the PI dunes.

Yikes?