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Posted - 09/14/2010 : 1:40:36 PM
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That's funny because Newburyport is experiencing "horrific" smells from the landfill and the comments in this article makes your heart break for these people. I just don't understand how the same owner experiences problems where ever he goes, and gets away with it. He must take more pleasure in spending money making people's live miserable, rather than correcting what he should.
Landfill smells are back Crow Lane work moves forward
By Katie Farrell Lovett
Staff writer
NEWBURYPORT — "Horrific" smells have permeated the Crow Lane neighborhood since Thursday night as New Ventures and the state push to finally finish capping the landfill and end the decade-long process.
Complaints of hydrogen sulfide in the neighborhood have been increasing over the last week. And on Thursday, they reached higher levels, Mayor Donna Holaday said.
"I can't tell you how horrible it was out there last night," the mayor said Friday.
Neighbors expressed outrage and frustration, reporting coughs, headaches, sinus problems and nausea they've dealt with for years.
"Absolutely disgusting! The stench that overtook our home this morning was nothing short of sickening," Bill Woodbury wrote in an e-mail chain Friday morning. "This is how a licensed operator works in Newburyport? Everyone in the house is green with nausea. Is there a reason the persons responsible are not under arrest. How about it, DEP. Throw these people out now! Life interrupted again."
"This explains the headache I've had for a week," wrote Jim Caponigro. "I've been popping Tylenol like candy. My house just about came off the foundation today as well. How could the underground methane piping withstand that without causing any damage? Just a thought is there a test to make sure everything is ok after the blasting?"
Shortly after midnight Sunday morning, Brenda Reffett reported the smells were back. She described them as "a mix of a burnt odor, a raw sewage odor and some other unidentifiable smell."
Throughout the capping process, odors have sprung up from the exposed pipes.
Last January, neighbors also experienced weeks of odors of hydrogen sulfide, which were determined to be coming from the overflow pipe that had been installed and left uncapped in the basin,
In August, neighbors of the landfill have again started to log complaints about odors, which officials believed was caused by an exposed pipe as well.
The smells of rotten eggs and burnt matches is produced from the decomposing gypsum at the site as it sits uncapped.
Blasting at the site has been halted until the situation is resolved, Holaday said, adding that she still has concerns about the pipe. The area has been packed and covered for the weekend, she added.
New Ventures owner and operator William Thibeault said Friday that crews responded to Crow Lane Thursday night around 9 p.m. after the odor complaints were logged throughout the evening and the mayor contacted him. Two 55-gallon deodorizing drums were brought to the site.
"We addressed the situation," Thibeault said. "I don't think there were any major problems."
As the blasting was performed, he added, sediment was uncovered from the old pond. As the capping is completed, crews will continue to blast the pond, he said.
"As part of the closure, we have to blast it out to make room for the water basin," Thibeault said.
The state, Thibeault and city officials have all expressed their hope to finally see the landfill capped this year after close to a decade of delays and stops in the capping process, which has included many fines and shutdowns of the site.
As they push to finish the capping by the end of the construction season, the state and New Ventures met with a meditator in hopes of reaching a resolution for the berm design.
Thibeault said Friday there has been "a lot of progress" as the design was narrowed down to one option.
A spokesperson for the state's Office of the Attorney General confirmed Friday that the two sides entered into a mediation session on Aug. 25 and that they are working to resolve the closure issues and disputes, including a final berm design.
Before the design can move forward, there are some outstanding conservation issues that the Conservation Commission must still act on.
"We're still close to coming to resolution," the mayor said. Once those are resolved, Holaday said she will hold a public meeting with the state Department of Environmental Protection to give an update and review the closure process.
That could happen in early October, she said.
Holaday said the landfill should be capped enough by the end of the season so that the entire liner is not left exposed for the winter, which should abate the odor outbreaks.
New Ventures purchased the landfill in 2000 with the plan of closing it by heaping tons of demolition debris on top and capping it.
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Citizens for Everett
