SAUGUS — The state Department of Environmental Protection on Wednesday, during a public meeting aimed at answering questions from residents regarding the expansion of WIN Waste Innovations’ ash monofil and the environmental impacts they believe it has, said barring a change in state law, expansion of the monofil would likely be impossible.
Rep. Jessica Giannino (D-Revere), who represents two precincts in Saugus, invited the DEP to come to Saugus after holding a similar meeting in Revere earlier this year. The meeting on Wednesday comes more than a week after the town’s Board of Selectmen approved a Host Community Agreement that would allow the company to continue to add ash to the monofil for the next two decades, and would exempt the town from paying tipping fees.
The meeting was facilitated by Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Debra Panetta, who has been a vocal opponent of WIN’s proposed expansion and began with speeches from Panetta, Giannino, Rep. Jeffrey Turco (D-Revere), and Kirstie Pecci, the executive director of Just Zero, an organization seeking to advance community-centered Zero Waste solutions.
In their speeches, Panetta, Giannino, and Turco spoke at length about their opposition to WIN’s monofil and the proposed expansion of it, focusing primarily on perceived negative environmental impacts particularly given WIN’s location adjacent to the Rumney Marsh, a state-designated area of critical environmental concern (ACEC).
For WIN to receive the necessary permits to continue operating the monofil it would need a positive site suitability assessment from DEP. But, DEP officials have said barring a change to state law, that is unlikely to happen.
“Based upon the information presently before MassDEP, the facility fails to meet the necessary site suitability criteria to allow for expansion within the ACEC and therefore would not receive a positive site suitability determination,” MassDEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg wrote in a Nov. 2021 letter to Turco. “Without a positive site suitability determination from MassDEP, a proposal to amend the facility’s site assignment to allow for vertical expansion would not advance to the Saugus Board of Health for consideration.”
During the meeting, Eric Worrall, the regional director for DEP’s Northeast Regional Office, echoed Suuberg’s 2021 statement, telling those in attendance that “under current law and regulation expansion would not be possible.”
Worrall did, however, acknowledge that a change in state law could allow WIN the vertical expansion of its landfill it is seeking beginning in the next 2 to 3 years once the monofil reaches the capacity it is currently permitted for. He also noted that the agency does not, at present, have a proposal from WIN Waste currently before them and would review a proposal upon receiving one.
In a statement, WIN Vice President Environmental Jim Connolly said the company plans to make an environmental case for the proposed expansion.
“Working with the Landfill Committee and Board of Selectmen, we have advanced the concept of continuing to use our landfill and set a path to a Host Community Agreement on how to share the resulting environmental and economic benefits with the Town. Once we finalize the agreement, we will develop the concept and begin a permitting process to advance the project. We look forward to making the environmental case for the project and engaging in a thorough, transparent and fact-based evaluation by the DEP,” Connolly said.
WIN officials have said previously that if they do not receive the necessary permits to continue operating the monofil in Saugus, ash generated at the waste-to-energy plant would be loaded onto tractor-trailers and trucked to Shrewsbury and Putnam, Conn. Regardless of if the permits are received, WIN’s waste to energy plant will continue to operate, a fact that Board of Selectmen Chair Anthony Cogliano pointed to in his remarks to the large crowd assembled in Town Hall.
“The emissions are what causes the problem, not what gets dumped in the landfill,” he said. “They’re going to lower those emissions, this is a good thing for Saugus. Let the process move forward.”
Cogliano also submitted 60 letters in support of the Host Community Agreement.
Worrall and Fairbrother explained that even if the landfill were to close, the ash, which the Environmental Protection Agency has not designated as hazardous waste, would remain on the site of the monofil.
“Will the ash be removed? No. Will it continue to be monitored and maintained? Yes,” Worrall said.
Panetta advocated for creating a committee to oversee the closure of the monofil — whether it be in the next 2 to 3 years or in 20 or 25.
Giannino said the meeting Wednesday was “not the end of the conversation.”
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].