[A] Canadian nonprofit wants an international environmental panel to review the pending 51-acre expansion of the Coventry landfill.
The landfill sits about a mile from the South Bay of Lake Memphremagog, and nearby Vermont and Quebec residents have raised concerns about the proximity of the landfill to the international lake.
Last Friday, Memphremagog Conservation Inc. sent a request to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation asking for an investigation into the potential impact of the expansion on Lake Memphremagog’s water quality. The CEC was formed through a side treaty to NAFTA to address shared issues of environmental concern in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.
“We believe that the precautionary principle must be applied given the ecological and recreational tourism importance of Lake Memphremagog and because the lake is a drinking water reservoir for more than 175,000 residents of the Eastern Townships of Quebec,” the letter states.
They also want the commission to look into whether approving the expansion violates international environmental laws, like the Boundary Waters Treaty between the U.S. and Canada.
The request represents the latest effort by landfill opponents to stall approval of the expansion. Although the state’s solid waste management division approved the expansion last fall, it still has to clear the Act 250 review process.
The District 7 Environmental Commission, which reviews Act 250 permits in the Northeast Kingdom, held a hearing on the project in January. MCI president Robert Benoit said that the conservation group was worried that the lack of updates from the Act 250 commissioners could mean an approval would be coming this summer.
“We don’t want the overall debate to just get too quiet as the summer goes by,” said Benoit. “Politicians have a tendency to give bad news when everybody is asleep or when it’s the holidays.”
MCI’s chief concern is that Newport’s wastewater treatment plant is not designed to remove PFAS from leachate — liquid contaminated with landfill pollutants. The plant, which sits on Lake Memphremagog tributary the Clyde River, is permitted to treat up to 15,000 gallons of leachate a day.
PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, do not break down in the environment and are used in a wide array of manufactured products, from rain jackets to cookware to firefighting foam. Scientists now know that exposure to certain PFAS chemicals can lead to cancer, thyroid disease, immune system damage, developmental problems in children and low birth weight.
Vermont is moving ahead with setting drinking water standards for PFOA and four other PFAS compounds at 20 parts per trillion — among the strictest in the country.
“You’re way ahead of the game compared to Quebec in that matter,” Benoit said of the state’s efforts to regulate PFAS. “So before all the people in Quebec wake up, MCI decided to push (for) no more leachate in Lake Memphremagog.”
The state Agency of Natural Resources recently put out a statewide PFAS sampling plan that names testing landfill leachate and wastewater treatment plant effluent as high priorities.
One of the conditions in the state solid waste division’s approval of the landfill expansion was that landfill operator Casella look into methods for pretreating leachate to remove PFAS. The DEC sampled levels of PFAs in wastewater from the landfill and from those samplings determined that the concentration of the chemicals in the nearby Clyde River should be under the state’s health advisory for drinking water, according to a state memo.
Chip Gianfagna, manager of the state’s wastewater program, said his division is waiting for Casella to provide an analysis of options to pretreat leachate before approving a pending wastewater permit renewal for the landfill.
“Since becoming aware of PFAS, we’ve essentially said we need to know what you’re going to do to address PFAS before we can issue this permit,” he said.
In addition to concerns about leachate, MCI also says in its request that it is concerned about how close the landfill is to Lake Memphremagog if a natural disaster — like a landslide or flood — were to occur.
MCI’s request is not the first time concerned Quebecois have asked for an international body to review the expansion. Last summer, Denis Paradis, member of parliament for Brome-Missisquoi, asked the International Joint Commission to look at the proposal.
A spokesperson for the IJC said at the time that the commission was looking at the landfill expansion as part of an ongoing investigation into nutrient management in the Memphremagog watershed, but not as a “major focus.”
Kirsten Sultan, district coordinator for the District 7 Environmental Commission, said there was not an estimated date for when the commission would decide on Casella’s Act 250 permit amendment.
“The application review process reflects the Commission’s deliberations and consideration of all of the information received, and staff work to support the Commission’s process,” Sultan said of the review timeline.
Sarah Julien, communications coordinator for the Commission for Environmental Commission, said that the CEC could not yet provide comments on the request.
