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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 04/11/2010 : 7:45:59 PM
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Judge: State can repair but not take over landfill
By Gillian Swart/newburyport@cnc.com
Newburyport Current
Posted Apr 09, 2010 @ 11:33 AM
Newburyport —
There will be no state takeover of the Crow Lane landfill in the immediate future. However, a Suffolk Superior Court judge has permitted the state Department of Environmental Protection to do critical repairs on the site, using money from the bond posted by the landfill owner.
The Attorney General’s Office on April 2 obtained a court order that is allowing DEP and its contractors “immediate access to repair storm damage” caused by the Feb. 25 windstorm. The damage was to the flexible membrane layer and the gas extraction system.
In an e-mail message to landfill neighbors and city officials, the DEP wrote: “The court’s decision does not remove New Ventures of its obligation to comply with the Final Judgment and complete the closure of the Landfill.”
Emily LaGrasse, media liaison in the Attorney General’s office, said there are no other pending court rulings.
In his April 2 decision, Judge John C. Cratsley found landfill owner New Ventures LLC in default of the trust agreement for the landfill’s performance bond. The DEP already has used part of the escrowed $2.9 million to pay the contractor who installed the membrane material last fall.
The court order also requires New Ventures to submit revised cost estimates for closure and post-closure maintenance. The DEP on March 5 notified the landfill owner that, if the closure and post-closure costs were to exceed the escrowed amount by more than 10 percent, New Ventures would have to increase the amount in escrow or establish another fund in an amount sufficient to cover the difference between the existing escrow and the revised cost estimate.
Strong winds during the February storm blew off part of the landfill’s cap and caused the failure of three gas wells. The motion filed by the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley alleged that New Ventures failed to fix the storm damage. The Attorney General’s Office argued that if the damaged and opened cap of the landfill were not repaired, the risk of noxious landfill gas and leachate releases would increase and threaten the health and welfare of the community.
The judge granted those motions following a March 29 hearing.
“I have to say, I am happy,” said Newburyport Mayor Donna Holaday of the court decision. “It’s an opportunity to go in and fix the liner and the [gas] wells. It’s good that things didn’t deteriorate further during the rain.”
This week, the state DEP is seeking bids for the repair work.
In April 2009, a consent judgment was entered in Suffolk Superior Court ordering New Ventures to finish capping the landfill by the end of November 2009, and to finish all remaining landfill closure work by the summer of 2010.The consent judgment resolved a lawsuit brought by the Attorney General’s Office in 2006 against New Ventures for violating state DEP enforcement orders, resulting in the release of noxious hydrogen sulfide gas.
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 04/16/2010 : 08:29:17 AM
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Landfills bill approved by committee
I received this a few minutes ago, from state Rep. Costello's office:
Legislation that would allow the state to access and directly manage landfills determined to be a public nuisance was approved today by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Environment.
The bill was filed by State Representative Michael A. Costello and State Senator Steven A. Baddour in response to conditions at Crow Lane landfill in Newburyport, which has been a threat to public health and environmental safety for years. In that time, residents have been affected by rotten egg odors and hydrogen sulfide gases emitted from Crow Lane.
Representative Costello, Senator Baddour, Newburyport Mayor Donna Holaday and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Laurie Burt all testified in favor of the bill at today’s hearing, which was chaired by Representative William Strauss (D – Mattapoisett) and Senator Anthony Petruccelli (D – East Boston).
“This bill will ensure that no other community in Massachusetts gets stuck the way that Newburyport has been stuck with this problem,” Costello said. “This legislation would allow the state to provide immediate relief to residents affected by the public nuisance and then go to court later to determine how to recover costs.”
“The residents of the Crow Lane neighborhood have suffered long enough”, said Senator Baddour. “The DEP must be given the power to intercede with problematic landfills to protect the health and quality of life for not only the citizens of Newburyport – but throughout the entire Commonwealth.”
The landfill operator, the state and the city have been entrenched in a legal battle for years over the conditions at Crow Lane. Costello and Baddour consulted with officials from DEP and General Court counsel and staff to write the legislation, which would bring landfill regulations into alignment with those for hazardous waste sites in the state.
“Newburyport demonstrates what goes wrong with a landfill that threatens public health and environmental safety,” said Commissioner Burt, “and how we are handicapped under solid waste laws in ways that we are not under hazardous waste laws.”
“It makes sense to bring solid waste sites into line with how we handle hazardous waste,” she added. Mayor Holaday spoke about the health problems that Newburyport residents have experienced as a result of the landfill including sinus pain, stomach aches, headaches and sleepless nights.
“I could go on and on about the violations that have occurred at the landfill. There’s no relief to us as a community,” Holaday said. “This bill gives the state the kind of authority it needs to resolve the problem. We can’t go through a nine-month, a 12-month court case while the community suffers.
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2010 : 2:40:22 PM
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Landfill update
It's been a while for an update, but I got a copy of this letter DEP sent to New Ventures saying that if NV does not take action within 14 days, DEP will take over corrective action on the landfill berm using the financial assurance mechanism (FAM).
DEP also reminded NV that it must maintain adequate funds in the FAM
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2010 : 7:51:58 PM
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May 21, 2010 - For immediate release:
AG Martha Coakley Files Contempt Complaint on Behalf of MassDEP Against Owner of Crow Lane Landfill
BOSTON — Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office has asked a Suffolk Superior Court judge to find the owner of the Crow Lane landfill in contempt of court for defaulting on its obligations under a 2009 court-ordered judgment, as well as a March 29 order of the Superior Court to close the Newburyport landfill.
In a complaint filed this week, the AG’s Office argues that New Ventures LLC, is in contempt of a March 29, 2010 ruling by Suffolk Superior Court Judge John C. Cratsley, ordering it to submit for MassDEP approval a full and complete estimate of how much it will cost to close the landfill and handle post-closure responsibilities. The order asks the court to order New Ventures to pay a civil penalty, to be determined by the court, for each day New Ventures remains in contempt of the March order. A hearing date has not been scheduled yet.
AG Coakley’s office also filed a motion today requesting that the court find New Ventures in default of its obligation to make necessary stability changes to the landfill’s perimeter berm and build the berm according to a MassDEP approved design plan, as required by an April 2009 final judgment. The berm surrounds the landfill’s perimeter and supports the massive weight behind the landfill’s slide slopes, holding the slopes in place and preventing the landfill mass from moving or collapsing.
In April 2009, AG Coakley’s office reached a settlement with New Ventures whereby the company was ordered to finish capping the landfill by the end of November 2009, and to finish all remaining landfill closure work by the summer of 2010. The consent judgment resolved a lawsuit brought by the Attorney General’s Office in 2006 against New Ventures for violating MassDEP enforcement orders, resulting in the release of noxious hydrogen sulfide gas.
The case is being handled by Assistant Attorney General Matthew Ireland of Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Environmental Protection Division, with assistance from paralegal Jennifer Venezia, MassDEP attorney Michael Dingle, MassDEP Northeast Regional Office Solid Waste Division Chief John Carrigan, MassDEP Northeast Deputy Regional Director Waste Enforcement Coordinator Susan Ruch, and MassDEP Northeast Regional Office Director Richard Chalpin.
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2010 : 10:05:49 PM
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
 Posted - 06/17/2010 : 1:24:16 PM
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NEWBURYPORT
Mediation is ordered on landfill
State, owners differ on closure procedure
By Katheleen Conti, Globe Staff | June 17, 2010
If the state and the owners of Newburyport’s Crow Lane Landfill are unable to resolve their differences by fall, the landfill could remain partially uncapped until at least next spring.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge John C. Cratsley recently ordered the state and landfill owner New Ventures Associates LLC to enter into voluntary mediation by July 1 to try to come to a consensus on closure and postclosure procedures and funding and, more specifically, on the design and construction of the landfill berm.
The order was Cratsley’s response to a May 21 motion from the state attorney general’s office asking that the court find New Ventures in default of its closure obligation, outlined in a settlement agreement reached with the state last year, for not revising its berm design to one that meets Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection regulations. Cratsley continued that motion without resolution until Oct. 1, giving both parties that period for mediation.
For New Ventures, Cratsley went on to say, mediation is “one final opportunity’’ to resolve their dispute with the state about closure procedures and costs.
“If mediation fails, the drastic remedy sought by the Commonwealth of default and takeover of the closure process would certainly be required by the fall of 2010,’’ Cratsley wrote.
Because of his mediation order, Cratsley went on to deny a motion filed by New Ventures that the court allow them to close the landfill on their schedule, using their own berm design, exclusively with money they were obligated to set aside for closure and postclosure procedures known as Financial Assurance Mechanism, or FAM funds.
Cratsley also denied a motion from the state attorney general’s office that the court find New Ventures in contempt of an order issued by Cratsley in March ordering New Ventures to issue a revision of the landfill closure and postclosure cost estimates. Cratsley indicated in his decision that New Ventures delivered estimates to the state on May 21, and added that the original March order did not include a deadline for the submission.
Crow Lane owner William Thibeault, of New Ventures, said he is “happy’’ with Cratsley’s order for mediation and that he is eager to meet with state officials.
Reaching a consensus this summer is crucial if the landfill, which he said is 90 percent finished, is to be fully closed this year, Thibeault said.
The flexible liner, which was damaged by the February windstorms, has been fixed and is in place, ready for a layering of sand, loam, and grass seed.
Waiting until October, when the weather starts to change, could jeopardize the growth of the grass, which could result in the seeds getting blown off by the wind, once again exposing the liner to harsh weather until next spring, Thibeault said.
“I want to put this to bed,’’ Thibeault said. “No one wants to see the liner exposed for another season. We all agree it’s a safety factor.’’
In an e-mail statement to the Globe, Attorney General Martha Coakley indicated the state would meet with New Ventures.
“We made the case that the defendant is in default, but the Court saw fit to give the defendant one more chance to reach an agreement with the MassDEP through mediation.
However, if mediation fails, Judge Cratsley cautioned that the remedy of default and MassDEP takeover of the closure process would be required by the Fall of 2010,’’ Coakley stated. “Until that time, we are happy to meet with New Ventures, but we will continue to insist that New Ventures finish its work and close the landfill as soon as possible.’’
The main issue, however, is the berm design. The berm is equivalent to the foundation of a house, surrounding the landfill’s perimeter to support the weight behind the slopes to prevent it from moving or collapsing.
Thibeault said the engineers hired to design New Venture’s berm stand behind their design, which the state argues is deficient because it does not meet the Department of Environmental Protection’s stability requirements.
Thibeault argues that the berm does meet state regulations and that he sent seven letters in the past two months to state environmental officials asking to meet to resolve the outstanding issue with the berm and the cost analysis, but officials refused. A Department of Environmental Protection spokesman said he could not comment on this because it is pending litigation. But in the contempt motion filed by the attorney general’s office last month, the state argues that New Ventures has had the past seven months to address and remedy the berm design, and that last November they rejected any state proposal that would involve design and construction revisions.
“For several months, the Commonwealth pushed to resolve the dispute over the landfill berm’s safety and stability, but New Ventures continued to ignore the specific language in the Court’s April 30, 2009 final judgment that it remedy design deficiencies identified by the MassDEP,’’ Coakley said in her statement.
In an attempt to expedite the process, Thibeault said he has reached out to state and local officials, specifically Mayor Donna D. Holaday, to help get everyone to the table as soon as possible.
Holaday said she is happy to help in whatever capacity she can, given that so much time has passed already. The parties have been in litigation for about six years.
“There are some difficult issues that are there,’’ Holaday said. “There is no love lost between DEP, New Ventures, the AG’s office, and Newburyport, for that matter. It’s been contentious. . . . I would really like not to lose this season and get this done before the end of the fall.’’
According to Cratsley’s order, the state and New Ventures must provide each other with the names of five Superior Court-approved mediators and agree on one by July 1.
If they cannot agree, the court will make a selection for them. Mediation is to proceed from July through September, unless both sides agree to a shorter time frame.
Katheleen Conti can be reached at kconti@globe.com.
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2010 : 1:20:27 PM
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I think people in Everett can attest to the fact the smell is no exaggeration especially when it comes to Billy Thibeault’s work ethic which really STINKS.
New Ventures' landfill in Newburyport. (WBZ-TV)
Newburyport neighbors want landfill smell fixed
Matt Ledin
NEWBURYPORT (WBZ) — Families who live near a landfill in Newburyport say the stench is making them sick. “Headaches, sleep deprivation, sore throat, burning chest,” says Bill Woodbury.
The Crow Lane Landfill, behind his home, is covered with a plastic liner, but is not permanently capped.
The project, which was supposed to end the smell, has been stalled as the state fights with the company that owns it, New Ventures. The two sides have been in and out of court over the last decade.
The offensive smell is hydrogen sulfide, known to smell like rotten eggs. It’s a byproduct of decomposing construction debris dumped at the landfill.
Woodbury was overcome by it when he had guests over for a Columbus Day cookout this week.
“It smells a little like a septic tank blowing in, and everyone kind of took notice of it, and the party went from sitting on the back deck to running into the house,” he said.
“It’s been a horrific situation for the residents, for the city,” says Newburyport Mayor Donna Holaday.
She had hoped to get the project finished before winter when harsh weather tends to rip the lining and make the smell worse.
“If we have…winds and rains as we had last winter, it caused a lot of damage, so I’m worried,” she says.
The manager of New Ventures, Bill Thibault, says the residents’ claims are exaggerated. He says he’s just as eager to get the capping project done as everyone else.
He says if the state gives him the go-ahead, he could have the work done by spring 2011.
The stink has prompted neighbors to file a class action lawsuit against New Ventures.
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2010 : 08:49:01 AM
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" The manager of New Ventures, Bill Thibault, says the residents’ claims are exaggerated."
I wonder what he would have to say if the landfill and stench were located near his backyard. This man and his landfill have put these residents through hell for years.
BTW, when does he start building the enclosed structure at Wood Waste here in Everett? |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 10/18/2010 : 1:46:24 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by massdee
" The manager of New Ventures, Bill Thibault, says the residents’ claims are exaggerated."
I wonder what he would have to say if the landfill and stench were located near his backyard. This man and his landfill have put these residents through hell for years.
BTW, when does he start building the enclosed structure at Wood Waste here in Everett?
When the egomaniac mayor gets off his buttocks and stops making it out to be about him.
How is that Wood Waste enclosure coming?? The one that was guaranteed to be done by November 2010? He’s on candid camera saying that.
Both are two peas in a pod. People with integrity do what they say they are going to do. Others have excuses………
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 01/30/2011 : 9:42:44 PM
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Undercurrents: Stink to high heaven
By John Burciaga
Newburyport Current
Posted Jan 28, 2011 @ 07:00 AM
Newburyport — Another year has passed, and we still have a landfill that stinks to high heaven. Critics of the last mayor cheered him out of town so those things could be fixed by a worthy successor, but this is a tango that takes more than two.
I’ve researched landfills, but local coverage, including this newspaper, has delved into the matter repeatedly over the past 10 years. Suffice it to say that those who run those damn things know that, at start-up, towns and cities are just so glad to see someone willing to take on such tasks akin to Hercules’ labor of cleaning the Augean Stables. They also can count on us to take a lazy look at them or, in this case, the agreements under which they labor.
Hence, these trash-takers go into the job amid our cheers that all this crap is now off our hands, freeing us for prettier pursuits. That’s when the fun begins.
Such companies either know what they’re doing, or care not a fig that they don’t. Hence, changes in town leadership mean that things will stay much the same, along with name-calling and finger-pointing. The only new thing is our creeping suspicion that the problem will outlast our lifetimes.
The history and evolution of landfills is one of civil wars all over the country, from Massachusetts and Florida to California. To wit, it’s a national problem. And they don’t just reek deplorably but are like tar babies: the more we deal with them, the more we’re stuck to, and with, them.
Allow me now to pause and warn whoever may take offense at the above metaphor to, firstly, get over Joel Chandler Harris and those books from a benighted era that should never have been foisted on our young minds without heavy editing; and secondly to learn what a tar baby really is and that such existed long before Harris ever put pen to paper.
That said, some landfills are notorious for driving towns and cities nuts, and some locales even become synonymous with those stink holes, due to our addiction for creating garbage and other waste. Were we not extremely dedicated and skilled at so doing, managing them would be less of a problem, but far be it from us to blame ourselves for anything.
We are consumers if nothing else, especially of things we don’t need, and damn proud of it.
The 2008 documentary, WALL-E, is worse than any horror movie, its future of a land overwhelmed by mountains of garbage hardly implausible.
What we have here now is a problem that is 10 years old and counting. Mayor Holaday must be credited for being on top of it as much as one can, both in physical presence and in tough language. But you can’t scare people like the New Ventures company; they have lawyers, too, and beyond that they’re like Missouri mules: regardless of yelling and screaming and beating them with sticks, they are prone to sit down and go nowhere.
So the wrath that was misdirected at John Moak is now at the current mayor’s doorstep. After all, mayors and councils are always in full view. Courts, attorneys general, sundry lawyers, Mass Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), state reps and senators, and all others involved at different times and levels, are out of sight, and spend as much time blaming each other as they do issuing threats at New Ventures.
The sense of helplessness has induced us to pray the state carry the ball on our behalf, to the point of taking it over, but there are problems with that: even the Suffolk Superior Court weighed in to say that the landfill owner is not at fault, as charged by the state. Thanks a lot, Yerroners: may there be a future landfill from hell right under your solemn noses.
The owners, by the way, have ignored more than two-thirds of their fines, citations, scathing editorials and the wrath of God, while failing to locate and control toxic emissions, the noxious fumes of which at times reach as far as Turkey Hill Road. Monitoring stations at various times have registered hydrogen sulfide levels ranging from 1 to 20 parts per billion.
On first moving here, I benefited from the first house inspector in my experience who did his job. It had no reference to nearby Crow Lane landfill, but to crappy construction flaws of the house itself, leading us to take a pass on its purchase. Good thing, or I’d be writing this with all manner of respiratory syndromes and between attempts to whip my neighbors into a posse.
Of course, a fat lot of good that would do. Just ask my almost-neighbors. The wrath of God, it seems, has befallen them and not New Ventures.
Or as e e cummings once said, “god forgive my little jokes on thee and i’ll forgive thy great big one on me.”
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John Burciaga of Newburyport writes on local issues as well as politics, popular culture and social trends. His blog, “Ichabod’s Kin,” is at ichabodskin.wordpress.com, and he may be reached directly at jeburciaga@comcast.net.
Copyright 2011 The Newburyport Current. Some rights reserved
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2012 : 1:19:14 PM
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I wonder if Wood Waste will file for bankruptcy too?
July 12, 2012
City: Bankruptcy won't affect landfill closure
Officials confident New Ventures will complete work
By Dyke Hendrickson, Staff Writer Newburyport Daily News
NEWBURYPORT — New Ventures Associates LLC, the company mandated to close the private landfill on Crow Lane, has declared bankruptcy, but city officials said they are confident the much-debated project will be completed.
New Ventures, based in Everett, has registered for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to both members of the state Department of Environmental Protection and municipal leaders.
But city officials said the agreement reached between the city and New Ventures, in association with the DEP, to close the troublesome site took into account the possibility that the company might succumb to financial duress. Local officials said they feel assured the landfill will be capped, sealed and left in environmentally acceptable form.
“We are aware of this development and have had a conference call with the DEP and others about it,” Mayor Donna Holaday said yesterday. “The work (to close the landfill) is about 95 percent complete, and it will be finished.”
In recent years, residents who live near the landfill have complained and filed lawsuits in an attempt to limit odors coming from the land mass.
Among the last directives from DEP was one in early October, when the state agency responded to complaints by neighbors and members of the Conservation Commission after a damaging storm. As a result, the flexible membrane liner layer was exposed, and several washouts in the sand and loam layers were evident.
DEP mandated a repair plan and also insisted that New Ventures continue to take action to limit odors.
In part because of pressure from municipal leaders, it appeared that progress was being made.
Ward 4 City Councilor Tom Jones, whose district is located close to the landfill, suggested the bankruptcy filing could represent posturing by New Ventures.
“New Ventures is facing lawsuits and what this could represent is financial and legal maneuvering,” Jones said. “But the city has financial assurances that the work will be done.”
"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
- Lord Acton |
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New Ventures/Crow lane landfill
