The state’s environmental court ruled this week that the active portion of the Moretown Landfill must remained closed.
The consent order handed down Tuesday affirms a March decision by the Agency of Natural Resources to close the landfill and force the owners, Florida-based Advanced Disposal, to address contamination and odor concerns at the facility on U.S. Route 2. For more than a year, neighbors have complained about health problems associated with the use of chemicals to cover up sludge odors. Until recently, the landfill accepted sewage sludge from Massachusetts.
Advanced Disposal, doing business as Moretown Landfill Inc., appealed ANR’s decision. Under the court order, the landfill must investigate and remediate groundwater contamination, and draft and implement an agency-approved odor control plan. The state also reserves the rights to bring enforcement action against MLI for past violations of Vermont’s environmental laws and regulations.
Advanced Disposal agreed to close and cap the active cell and hopes to apply to open a new trash cell on the site.
Advanced Disposal is also at odds with the Town of Moretown over fees the company owes. Historically, host fees paid by the landfill have made up a large portion of the town’s budget, as much as $500,000 a year. To date, the landfill has paid about $50,000 this year and has not made a payment since July, town officials said.
Moretown Selectboard chair Tom Martin said the relationship has become “strained,” but the town hopes to work out its differences with Advanced Disposal.
“We have a difference of opinion on the minimum host-town payment,” Martin said Wednesday. “We are kind of in the middle of the whole thing. We enjoy the revenue but things (at the facility) need to be done correctly.”
Martin said town officials will meet with lawyers Friday to determine how to proceed in resolving the dispute over host fees.
