Here’s an update on the 180 acre dump that Casella Waste Systems has proposed next to Forest Lake and Forest Lake State Park in Dalton – along with a request for your support as we come to the end of this challenging year. You’ll find a quick overview of progress and challenges below.
What’s at stake: Nothing less than our quality of life in the North Country. Like the Dalton Drag Strip — which NCABC fought for 10 years — threats to our quality of life include wetlands pollution and water quality degradation as well as air pollution, noise pollution, foul odors, increases in truck traffic on our roads (garbage trucks making up to 90 round trips a day through Whitefield) plus threats to wildlife and property values. The proposed dump a regional threat with impacts far beyond Dalton.
Where we are: Casella hasn’t yet filed permit applications for the dump with the NH Department of Environmental Services. But they may as early as the end of this year, starting the permit approval process – but alsogiving us much more detail about their plans than they’ve provided so far.
We’ll alert you as soon as the applications are filed. We’ll monitor the DES approval procedures and rules, challenge questionable details in the application and in the permit decisions, and bring accountability to Casella’s deceptive public relations campaign.
We’ll continue our work with other grassroots advocacy groups like Save Forest Lake, the Forest Lake Association and Bethlehem’s activist community. NCABC volunteers, attorneys, environmental experts and traffic engineers will review and respond to the permit applications. And we’ll keep you informed at every step.
What you can do: The dump is a major assault on the entire North Country, with regional impacts that will likely last for generations. Here’s what you can do to challenge it:
Talk to your neighbors, friends, town officials and state legislators Local opposition to the Northern Pass helped defeat that project. The same energy can help defeat the landfill.
Write letters, go to public hearings and let the media know what you think. When the legislation described on the fact sheet below comes up for debate, we’ll ask your help in a letter writing campaign to our legislators. We’ll keep you posted on legislation and public hearings.
Stay up-to-date Follow NCABCon our website, Facebook and Twitter. Or email us: northcountryabc@gmail.com
Please help us fight for a healthy environment and our exceptional quality of life.Your donation will fund community education and networking. And it will help our engineering, transportation and legal consultants prepare to respond as soon as Casella files its permit applications.
See our How to Help page for information on how you can help financially with a tax-deductible donation.
Warm thanks to you! Your support makes this work possible.
The NCABC Team
Sarah Doucette, Adam Finkel, Ellen Hays, Erik Johnson, Claire Lupton, Mary Menzies, David Sundman and Elliot Wessler
Challenging the Dump: What’s been Accomplished
Over the past year NCABC has worked with local citizens and grassroots groups like the Forest Lake Association and Save Forest Lake to protect the North Country from the 180 acre Casella Waste Systems dump that’s been proposed in Dalton near Forest Lake and Forest Lake State Park.
Here’s what’s been accomplished:
Emergency Temporary Zoning in Dalton In a special election in July, Dalton residents voted to adopt an Emergency Temporary Zoning Ordinance to regulate commercial and industrial development while Dalton writes a permanent Zoning Ordinance. NCABC worked with the Forest Lake Association, Save Forest Lake and many, many local residents to help make this possible.
Permanent Zoning in Dalton The Dalton Planning Board and town residents are working on a Permanent Zoning Ordinance that may be ready for a vote at Town Meeting in March. The goal is to improve environmental protection and safeguard Dalton’s rural quality of life. NCABC is poised to support the process when a draft document is released.
New State Legislation NCABC,the Forest Lake Association and Save Forest Lake helped introduce two important bills to be considered in the NH House this legislative session. The first prohibits new landfills near state parks, national parks and US Department of Agriculture forest land. The second places a moratorium on new privately-owned for-profit landfills or the expansion of existing landfills until the state can study the creation of municipal waste districts to handle NH’s waste needs. The bills are co-sponsored by House members of both parties.
Bethlehem Action On Dec. 3, NCABC supported Bethlehem citizens in their long fight to close Casella’s Bethlehem facility at a NH DES Public Hearing on a proposed Stage VI expansion of the Bethlehem landfill.
Site Monitoring Friends of NCABC have used aerial photography and drone videos to monitor the Dalton Drag Strip site and have uncovered developments that may not be consistent with DES regulations. They’ll continue to monitor both the drag strip site and the potential landfill site.
Water Quality Testing NCABC is fighting a Casella misinformation campaign about Forest Lake’s water quality. Casella has implied that the lake is already polluted, so more pollution from a dump won’t matter. In fact Forest Lake’s annual water testing program — a 20 year collaboration with the State of NH — indicates the lake’s water quality is excellent, and the lake is healthier than state averages for similar lakes.
Regional Outreach NCABC recently sent a mailer to Whitefield residents detailing the negative effects of a Dalton dump on the town of Whitefield, including traffic congestion and up to 90 waste-hauling trucks making round trips every day on US 3 and Rt 116/142. Given the landfill’s many regional impacts, we’re collaborating with residents of Bethlehem, Twin Mountain, Sugar Hill and Littleton to oppose the dump.