The Deeper Dig is a weekly podcast from the VTDigger newsroom. Listen below, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
An Act 250 hearing this week could decide the future of Vermont’s only open landfill.
Landfill owner Casella Waste Systems wants to expand its site in Coventry from 78 acres to 129 acres. A growing number of local opponents are working to stop the project. But the company says that in 4-5 years, there won’t be anywhere else to put the state’s trash.
“It’s a needed site,” says Jeremy Labbe, the landfill manager for Casella. “Each of us generates about three pounds of trash a day.”
Casella vice president Joe Fusco says the company works with a zero-waste future in mind — but until that’s feasible, sites like the one in Coventry remain necessary. “Landfills are kind of the bridge to that future of zero waste.”
Over the past several months, a local opposition group called DUMP — or Don’t Undermine Memphremagog’s Purity — has raised alarm over the site’s proximity to Lake Memphremagog. They say leachate — liquid waste from the landfill that’s treated at municipal wastewater plants — includes contaminants that could make their way to the lake.
“We want to preserve our environment and our lake for our children, our grandchildren, our neighbors, because it’s the right thing to do,” said opposition leader Charlie Pronto at a public meeting last September.
Pronto and others take issue with the fact that about 70 percent of the state’s waste is trucked to Coventry for disposal.
“It’s really an unjust situation that we’re dealing with up here,” says Tom Stelter, a DUMP activist. “Burlington should find their own solution to their trash. Montpelier should find their own solution to their trash.”
Casella argues that operating a single landfill is the only feasible solution under current regulations, and state officials have said they don’t have the authority to decide where landfills are placed. But opponents plan to use the Act 250 hearing process to make their case.
On this week’s podcast, VTDigger environmental reporter Elizabeth Gribkoff explains what’s at stake in the landfill debate. Plus, hear from Casella reps and DUMP activists on the impact they believe the project will create.
Subscribe to The Deeper Dig on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.
