House Bill Seeks To Prohibit Landfills With 2 Miles Of State Parks
- (Reprinted with permission from Robert Blechl and the Caledonian Record)
LITTLETON — Opposition is mounting to a proposed commercial landfill in Dalton, and it now includes more people from neighboring towns.
Saying negative impacts would fall on their town and river from the proposed Casella Waste Systems landfill upstream in Dalton, 53 Littleton residents signed a petition to oppose a second landfill in the North Country.
The petition, non-binding, will appear at the March town meeting as a warrant article to oppose any approval by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services of any application for another commercial landfill to be built in the region.
With environmental concerns, the Littleton Conservation Commission will also be writing to DES to ask the department to deny Casella’s wetlands permit for Dalton.
At the same time, local lawmakers are advancing a New Hampshire House of Representatives bill that seeks to prohibit landfills from being sited within two miles of state parks.
Casella is proposing its second commercial landfill in the area beside Forest Lake State Park.
Its existing landfill in Bethlehem is projected to reach capacity and close in about 2026.
Petition
During the Dec. 28 Littleton Board of Selectmen’s meeting, resident Pat Kellogg presented the petition to selectmen with the signatures of 53 registered voters that include state Rep. Linda Massimilla, D-Littleton; state Sen. Erin Hennessey, R-Littleton, also a co-sponsor of the House Bill; and John Hennessey, chairman of the Littleton River District Redevelopment Commission.
Although the petition has already been submitted with the 50-plus signatures, Kellogg, after last week’s meeting, said signatures continue to be collected, with a goal of reaching 100.
The petition states that the North Country has been host to one of the state’s largest solid waste landfills for more than three decades and the North Country “has become the repository for hundreds of thousands of tons of municipal solid waste generated in towns and cities outside of our region and state” and “the byproducts of that solid waste have for years adversely affected the water, air, and life quality for our neighbors and ourselves.”
The communities that presently send their solid waste to be land-filled in the North Country can take responsibility for the reduction and disposal of their own waste in their own region, it reads.
“Whereas the people of the town of Littleton over these past decades have made substantial investments in our community’s health and sustainability, including recognizing and supporting the economic importance of the Ammonoosuc River, which runs right through our center,” states the petition. “Therefore, the town of Littleton resolves that the new landfill proposed to be located in neighboring Dalton is not compatible with our vision for the protection of the Ammonoosuc River and its watershed, our shared groundwater, our shared roadways, our regional environment, or the tourism businesses we depend on for our economic future.”
Addressing selectmen, Kellogg said Littleton could look into other places to dispose of its waste, including the municipal Mt. Carberry landfill near Berlin.
She said she’ll argue that a landfill, even in Dalton, would impact Littleton, and Casella’s wetlands permit indicates two dozen work areas that would impact the river and the wetlands complex of Alder Brook, which flows into the Ammonoosuc River.
“Our river and our river walk gives us so much economic benefit,” said Kellogg.
Last year at their town meeting, residents in Whitefield approved a similar non-binding petition stating to the governor that they are opposed to a landfill, said Jon Swan, a Dalton resident and vocal critic of a Casella landfill who attends selectmen’s meetings in area towns to discuss the issue.
Swan said Littleton could explore switching from Casella as its waste manager to disposing of its waste at the Mt. Carberry landfill.
“You already have an existing transfer station,” he said. “All you need to do is point the trucks going from Bethlehem to Mt. Carberry, in Success, which is a municipally-owned landfill. It has plenty of capacity. Their current Phase 3a permit submitted to DES, not approved yet, gives them more capacity out to 2041. There’s no reason why they can’t accommodate North Country waste. The town of Dalton made the switch last June. In a head-to-head comparison of what they were spending with NCES, because of lower tipping fees, they saved over $1,000 …”
(According to Dalton Board of Selectmen meeting minutes from Feb. 24, total Casella costs were $23,204 a year and total Carberry costs $22,330).
Swan took issue with the town of Littleton’s Sept. 15 letter of support to DES, signed by all three selectmen, asking the department to approve the expansion of the Casella landfill in Bethlehem.
He called Littleton’s projected cost increases if the Bethlehem landfill were to close “inflated.”
Littleton Town Manager Andrew Dorsett said he stands by the figures, which he said include everything from bio-solids to trucking fees and anticipated tipping fees.
Committee And Conservation Commission
Another issue that came up is the suggestion of a committee in Littleton to study the town’s solid waste management needs, said Carrie Gendreau, chair of the Board of Selectmen.
“Trash isn’t going to go away and I think we have to come up with something that’s going to be sustainable,” she said.
The committee can develop a mission that includes evaluating costs and long-range options, said Dorsett.
Selectmen Chad Stearns said it makes sense to await the verdict of the town meeting petition because, depending on the vote, the mission might need to change.
To applause from those in the room, Tom Alt, chairman of the Littleton Conservation Commission, said the conservation commission will weigh in on the matter to specifically oppose the Casella wetlands permit now under review by DES.
The letter will avoid anything that has to do with economic factors like truck traffic, said Alt, who added that he can’t imagine, even if it costs a little more to drive Littleton trash to Carberry, what it would cost Littleton if the town lets “those 100 trucks and stinky garbage come up your tourist-impacted Main Street.
“You can’t put a value on that,” he said.
And part of the total land area of a landfill in Dalton is in Littleton, said Alt.
House Bill And Opposition Groups
Also co-sponsoring the landfill buffer bill, whose primary sponsor is state Rep. Edith Tucker, D-Randolph, is state Rep. Tim Egan, D-Sugar Hill.
The bill was originally sponsored and introduced by former state Rep. Elaine French, D-Littleton, in the 2020 legislative session.
The language in the bill including the Mt. Carberry landfill and Appalachian Trail have since been removed, and the bill now focuses on the 2-mile buffer around state parks, said Egan.
“We tried to make it as simple as possible,” he said.
Other local lawmakers in support include Massimilla and state Rep. Denny Ruprecht, D-Landaff.
Egan said he is also trying to get the several local landfill opposition groups to work more closely together in the fashion of the Northern Pass opposition.
In recent weeks, a more concerted effort has emerged, called “Stop Northern Trash.”
“If there’s more of a Northern Pass-type approach … you’re going to make more people aware that this one issue isn’t just going to affect one town, it’s going to affect a lot of towns, with the trucking, the traffic, the environmental impacts, the tourism,” said Egan.