Southbridge landfill plans stalled

By Jonathan Cook
Turley Publications Reporter

BOSTON - Sturbridge has been saved from a smokey neighbor. A trash burning power plant that might have been built on an expanded Southbridge landfill will not be allowed, after all.
While the town of Southbridge had agreed to cooperate with Casella Waste Systems in the establishment of a gasification plant, which would burn trash to create electricity, Gov. Deval Patrick will not lift the ban on such facilities.
According to an Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs press release earlier this week, a ban on any new waste incineration plants will remain.
As part of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Solid Waste Master Plan process currently underway, lifting the ban that has been in effect since 1990 was being considered.
However, after the local group Residents for Alternatives to Trashing Southbridge (RATS) joined forces with several other environmental organizations to form Don’t Waste Massachusetts, Gov. Patrick was persuaded to step in.
“We are serious about managing the waste we generate in a way that saves money for cities and towns, curbs pollution and protects the environment for our children and grandchildren,” Patrick said. "There are better ways than traditional incineration.”
That statement spells relief to Kirstie Pecci, a Sturbidge resident and pro bono attorney for RATS. “This really is a huge local and statewide victory,” she said.
Over the last year and a half, Pecci explained, members of RATS have met with the Commissioner of the DEP, the Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and many state senators and representatives.
“We have also attended state-wide and national conferences and DEP stakeholder meetings and workgroups, testified at state legislative hearings, collected over a thousand anti-incinerator petition signatures, letters to the DEP and Gov. Patrick,” she said.
That work has paid off by keeping Sturbridge from landing in the shadow of a waste burning plant.
“Casella was going to build that incinerator,” Pecci said. She added that the waste company and operator of the Southbridge landfill – which sits on the Sturbridge town line – was working hard to get the ban lifted. “They were at every (DEP) workgroup and shareholder meeting,” she said.
Instead, Gov. Patrick is “committed to an aggressive agenda of recycling and waste reduction that gives cities and towns assistance to expand and improve their recycling efforts and requires greater responsibility from manufacturers,” according to the release.
Also, Patrick is calling for the passage of the E-Waste Bill currently in the Joint Rules Committee to be considered by the legislature for “expeditious action.”
The bill would make electronics producers take back their products for recycling.
Proponents say that would create an incentive for more durable, reusable and less toxic products.
Also, a measure that intends to increase recycling and expand the bottle bill with a focus on plastic water bottles has the governor’s support.
“The whole state is moving toward zero waste,” Pecci said. Zero waste, she explained, is a strategy to eliminate the demand for landfills by maximizing the reuse, reduction and recycling of products.
However, this is a victory that requires follow-through, Pecci added.
“There is much work left to be done. If zero waste policies are not adopted and enforced, “Massachusetts and Southbridge will be facing this threat over and over again,” she said.