DEP official fields questions about Hampden landfill

HAMPDEN – Members of the public fired questions at a state environmental official for nearly two hours Tuesday night about Pine Tree Landfill’s application to increase capacity and the company’s plans to address groundwater contamination.

Cyndi Darling, an environmental specialist with the state Department of Environmental Protection, fielded questions ranging from how to limit odor coming from the landfill to what to do about seagulls that feed on trash at the Emerson Mill Road site.

Approximately 20 people attended the meeting at the Hampden municipal building, which was organized by the Hampden Citizens Coalition, a group that opposed the landfill’s last expansion as well as its current plan to accept more trash.

Casella Waste Systems Inc., which owns the landfill, filed an application to add 2.5 million cubic yards of capacity to the landfill’s current 6 million cubic yards through a system of “mechanically stabilized earth berms,” nearly vertical structures that are similar to retaining walls.

A question Tuesday about what the DEP is doing to address landfill odor generated murmurs of agreement that Pine Tree is causing a stink. “That’s why half of us are here,” one man said.

“We don’t know unless you tell us,” Darling urged residents with complaints to call the DEP or the landfill’s odor complaint hot line.

Many people find it impractical to call the odor complaint hot line, such as when they notice the smell while driving by on the way to work, coalition member Norm Thurlow said Tuesday.

All odor complaints are investigated to determine where the smell originates, though the state standard requires that the problem rise above an “unreasonable impact” to prompt corrective action, Darling said. “What is objectionable to one person may not be to another person,” she said.

“Ten thousand seagulls can’t be wrong,” one man said, referring to the birds that often can be seen picking at the landfill’s waste. The seagulls could pose a threat of avian flu, which should be of concern to the DEP, another said.

The DEP is working with the state Department of Agriculture to address that problem, Darling said. “It’s not something we’re ignoring,” she said.

Also under the scrutiny of the DEP is the landfill’s proposal to address groundwater contamination on the site, Darling said in response to several questions about Casella’s recently approved remediation plan.

The contamination is originating in the oldest, or “conventional,” layer of the landfill, and DEP officials are investigating whether some of the contamination is leaking from a newer portion of the landfill next to the interstate.

The DEP now has until Wednesday, Aug. 24, to determine whether Casella’s application is complete. If it is, a review process then would begin that could take an undetermined amount of time, Darling said.

“We don’t take any of these applications frivolously,” she said.