State may reopen landfill

In an irony that has both frustrated and infuriated many in this prospering city, the state is now saying the fastest way to permanently close the foul-smelling Crow Lane landfill is to open it again.

In a deal still being worked out by the state, the owners of the facility, Everett-based New Ventures LLC , could resume dumping construction debris in the next few weeks, after the city shut down the operation last December.

That's the same debris that sparked hundreds of odor complaints and health concerns that prompted the shutdown. Now Newburyport officials are facing some ugly options as the state finalizes the deal.

``I've always had a concern about how we were going to get this landfill capped properly," Newburyport Mayor John Moak said at a meeting with residents and state officials last Thursday to discuss the proposed deal.

``We stopped allowing them to bring in construction and demolition material in December 2005, and I'm not sure that was such a good idea," the mayor said. ``This may sound like something that we don't want to happen . . . but this problem could also go in a direction where nothing will happen for another six to eight months."

That ``direction" is into court, where the state attorney general's office and Department of Environmental Protection fear it could be stuck indefinitely without resolution. And when a judge finally hears the case, residents' health concerns may not stand up to scrutiny, according to a recently completed air-quality analysis surrounding the facility.

The study, done by the DEP, found the landfill emitted noxious gas es such as hydrogen sulfide in levels exceeding federal odor and health guidelines for periods up to 20 hours at a time. However, such events were occasional and not chronic, and the health threats posed may not be enough to support the city's push for a state takeover of the facility, a move Moak and state elected officials called for in a letter last month.

The state would need court approval for any such takeover, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Ireland said at the meeting Thursday. Without proof that lives are in danger, it may be hard to get court support for a takeover without a protracted legal battle.

``The truth is we'll have a fight on our hands," Ireland said. ``We could go to court, but all that could take six to eight months."

In the same time period, the landfill could be well on its way to being closed, Ireland said. As it is capping the facility with the demolition debris, New Ventures is also promising to build a filtration and flare system that will remove the offensive sulfur and burn the noxious gases, Ireland said.

But Moak and many city residents and officials are opposed to any new dumping. That debris contains a large amount of gypsum, the primary ingredient in sheetrock which, in decomposing, emits the foul gases causing all the odor and health problem complaints.

The deal being worked out with New Ventures includes removal of gypsum from the debris prior to dumping. How that will happen and enforcement options when it doesn't are among the details being worked out, Ireland said.

``One of the things we're definitely going to have in that agreement is a separation protocol for any new waste coming in," Ireland said. ``The question is who is going to monitor everything."

That question has skeptical residents and local officials alternately resigned and enraged . At the meeting, City Councilor Tom Jones said he was very ``displeased" with the agreement.

He said residents have been dealing with the issue for the past two years. ``You don't know what these people have been living with," he said.

In almost daily rounds of e-mails and phone calls to the city and New Ventures, residents complain of sore throats, runny noses, itchy eyes, and nausea from fumes from the landfill. Part of the attraction of the new agreement with New Ventures is that it appears to be the fastest way to fix these problems, Ireland and others said.

In the proposal, the company is agreeing to have the landfill partially covered by December, thus keeping out rain and slowing the rotting process that is the source of all the sulfurous gases . In the agreement, the entire facility is supposed to be capped by next summer.

``A judge will be very angry with them if they don't meet these milestones that we have worked out with them," Ireland said. ``If they screw up and we're back in court, we can move on a separate track to get state funding and have the state do this."

The proposed deal means just putting off an inevitable trip to court, according to skeptical city residents and officials. They argue that New Ventures has ignored or changed many of the conditions it agreed to in the original contract it signed with the state in 2000 to close and cap the facility.

``Eight months from now we're going to have to make a new agreement," said Ron Klodenski, who lives near the site. ``Let's get this [court process] started right now. You haven't dealt with New Ventures as long as we have."

Moak said he too was skeptical about the deal -- and the gypsum separation in particular -- but that the city may have few options. It's a contract worked out between the state and New Ventures, Moak said, and while the city may be able to close it temporarily, keeping it closed is another matter.

``I have to satisfy the mental anguish of people who put up with this," he said. ``But we're the third man out here. It's a very tough situation we've been put in."