[T]he operators of the Moretown landfill have agreed to pay a $180,000 civil penalty to the state of Vermont as part of a settlement reached with the Attorney General’s Office.
The landfill operators, Florida-based Advanced Disposal, which owns Moretown Landfill Inc., will also pay a separate $20,000 fee to the Vermont Solid Waste District Managers Association.
Advanced Disposal had been dumping sewage sludge from Northampton, Massachusetts, on the Moretown property. After complaints were raised by neighbors about odors from the landfill in 2012, VTDigger investigated the company and those complaints.
Nick Persampieri, assistant attorney general, said that per the nature of a settlement agreement, the landfill operators had not officially admitted liability, but that the state felt this was a “reasonable resolution of the state’s claims.”
The Vermont Attorney General’s Office lodged a 16-count complaint in 2014 on behalf of the Agency of Natural Resources for violations of Vermont’s waste management and air quality laws that allegedly occurred when the landfill was still operating. The Washington County Superior Court filed the settlement order on the civil penalty and supplemental environmental project on May 21.
Attorney General TJ Donovan, in a statement released Tuesday, said landfill gases have “strong odors even at very low concentrations” and the release of methane and carbon dioxide from the landfill contributes to climate change.
Moretown residents began opposing a proposed expansion of the landfill into a fourth cell in 2012, claiming that smells emanating from the mound of waste in their town had worsened in recent years. The landfill started accepting septic sludge from Massachusetts that year. Neighbors of the landfill said the smell inside their homes was intolerable — even with doors and windows shut.
The landfill had been cited for a number of violations for 14 years prior to that, including groundwater contamination, uncontrolled odors, windblown trash and exposed hazardous waste. The state had confirmed 374 separate instances in which the company exceeded its methane emission limit of 50 parts per million.
In March 2013, ANR denied the landfill operator’s request to continue using the third cell of the landfill, requiring the landfill to be closed within 30 days. Advanced Disposal appealed the denial through the Vermont Superior Court’s Environmental Division.
The court ordered Moretown Landfill Inc. to stop accepting waste in July 2013 and to implement an odor control plan, but said that Advanced Disposal could still apply to ANR for expansion into a fourth cell. Since the landfill operators applied to expand the landfill into a fourth cell, a temporary stay on capping the third cell of the landfill was granted while ANR reviewed the application. Later that year, Advanced Disposal withdrew their plan for expansion.
Cathy Jamieson, solid waste program manager with the Department of Environmental Conservation, said that the settlement is separate from the ongoing closure of the landfill. While the landfill has not accepted new waste for years, she said, the “closure” process would not be completed until the landfill is capped with vegetation and soil on top of a plastic layer, which has not yet occurred.
Jamieson said operators of the Moretown landfill would then need to conduct groundwater and gas monitoring for a minimum of 30 years after the vegetative layer has been established.
The Attorney General’s Office says the $20,000 directed to the Vermont Solid Waste District Managers Association will be used to provide low cost residential compost materials to Vermonters.
Donovan wanted some of the money from the settlement to benefit Vermonters and encourage residents to use compost, which reduces waste going to landfills, Persampieri said.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that the state had approved an expansion of the Moretown landfill into a fourth cell.
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