Landfill closure endorsed Hampden agrees plan should go on to DEP

HAMPDEN – The proposed closing of the Pine Tree Landfill took another huge leap forward Tuesday night, as councilors voted unanimously to endorse the closure plan, leaving the final decision to the state.

“If this arrangement flies, 12-31-09 will be the final day that trucks arrive with waste on them. Period,” Marty Drew, general manager at Pine Tree Landfill, said during the council meeting.

Town and landfill officials drafted a five-page plan that would completely close the 21-acre site by early 2010. The landfill will limit the variety of wastes it accepts by June 1, 2007, and no longer accept waste after Dec. 31, 2009.

As of June 2007, according to the plan, the landfill only will accept construction and demolition debris and use incinerator ash and contaminated soil as a cover and stabilizers for the demolition material. The waste limitations eliminate refuse that has odor potential, such as sludge, Town Manager Susan Lessard said.

Now that the town has supported the proposal, Department of Environmental Protection officials are expected to carefully scrutinize the plan and decide whether to issue a closure order.

Brian Bouchard, president of H.O. Bouchard Transportation Services, said in the meeting that his company has been a neighbor of the landfill for 30 years and he supports the finite closure date and hopes it will provide development opportunities on the Cold Brook Road.

“12-31-09 is a welcome date in all of our lives, trust me,” he said.

Councilors and residents alike had questions regarding the proposal, many about the fate of the site once it is closed.

Lessard assured everyone that the town had approximately $3.2 million in the Hampden Environmental Trust to maintain the landfill once it becomes the municipality’s responsibility, following the 30 years Casella is mandated to service the site.

Next, Casella will submit a closure plan to the DEP, which could take more than a year to consider it. Casella’s general manager, however, confirmed the company intends to stand behind the plan.

“This is for real,” Drew said. “There is not going to be any fancy footwork. That will be the way it goes down,” he said, referring to the five-page draft.