Sludge Watch ==> Boston Globe: Landfill Odors Intolerable - History of Sludge

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Here in Southern Ontario lots of sludge is going into landfills - usually US 
landfills.  But that doesn't mean that the sludge isn't causing damage.  
Residents near the Carleton Farms landfill - home to virtually all of 
Toronto's sewage sludge for much of the past 5 years - have a certified 
class - action lawsuit for damage to their quality of life.

Here is another landfill with problems that may be sludge related.   When a 
landfill goes wrong - who will pay to fix it?


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Newburyport Mass

Battle over landfill odor escalates
By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff  |  September 30, 2007

The checkered history of Newburyport's Crow Lane Landfill may become pivotal 
in the legal battle to cap and close it.

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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.

The demand by New Ventures Associates LLC comes as the Everett-based company 
is under court order to take immediate steps to stop the spread of noxious 
odors from its landfill. On Sept. 20, a Suffolk Superior Court judge 
directed New Ventures to place a temporary cap on the portion generating 
rotten-egg smells, install three gas-extraction wells to control the odors, 
and to repair tears in the permanent cap that was installed.

The court order followed numerous legal actions against the company in the 
past two years by the city and the state Department of Environmental 
Protection over trash, odor, and other alleged violations at the site.

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."

New Ventures bought the landfill in 2000.

In its September letter, New Ventures' lawyer, citing state public records 
law, requests that the city send him all historical records relating to the 
landfill from every city board, department and other "governmental unit," 
including all "e-mails, notes, calendar entries, minutes of City Council, 
Board of Health, Conservation Commission, Department of Public Works and 
other meetings, and other paper and electronic records, whether current or 
archived."

In a phone interview this week, Bennett said he has not received any of the 
requested records from the city, but believes officials intend to comply 
after discussing it with the city solicitor. New Ventures' request follows 
its August letter notifying Newburyport that it is considering civil 
litigation to recoup some of the $7.1 million the company has spent capping 
and closing the landfill.

Newburyport's solicitor calls the latest twist a diversion tactic.

"It appears to be a retaliatory attempt to deflect attention away from their 
failure to properly close the landfill and deflect attention away from the 
fact that they have been subjecting the neighborhood to horrible . . . 
odors," said Richard Bowen.

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."

Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar at globe.com