Activists plan to demonstrate outside the Coventry landfill next week while its owner, Casella Waste Systems, hosts an open house.
The protest is slated to last from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 14, running parallel with the event at Vermont’s only landfill.
“It’s a perfect time because obviously they’re trying to court people,” said Jon Swan, founder of Save Forest Lake, the New Hampshire–based group organizing the rally.
“That’s a perfect time to let people know, ‘Hey, guess what? We’re opposed to this,’” he said.
His organization has been working against a proposed Casella landfill in Dalton, New Hampshire.
A Vermont-based group, Don’t Undermine Memphremagog’s Purity, has spent months opposing plans for a controversial expansion of the landfill, and its activists intend to join Swan, said Henry Coe, a member of the group.
“We’re just concerned, and if this is an opportunity where we can raise a little more public awareness, then I think we will participate,” said Coe, whose group is often referred to by its acronym, DUMP.
Casella Vice President Joe Fusco said the company welcomes any discussion about the landfill issue, as long as protesters are willing to discuss how much pollution in Newport’s Lake Memphremagog comes from the Canadian side of the border.
“We’re not trying to court people,” Fusco said in response to Swan’s characterization of the landfill’s open house. “We’re trying to inform people with facts and science.”
State officials initially approved the expansion of the landfill by 51 acres last October. Then, in July, a state board issued Casella an Act 250 permit for the effort.
The expansion has drawn opposition from locals who worry about the environmental effects of the landfill expansion — namely, the potential for runoff into the nearby Black River to contaminate Lake Memphremagog. Critics also bring up odors and other quality-of-life concerns.
Activists appealed the original state approval but not the Act 250 decision.
The July permit included several conditions. It said that Casella must hire an independent contractor to monitor odor complaints and inspect incoming trash, and it required the company to find a new place to treat leachate — liquid contaminated with landfill pollutants that can seep into the ground.
“I think it satisfied everybody, including us,” Casella engineer Joe Gay told told the Coventry Selectboard on Tuesday, explaining why he believed the decision hadn’t been appealed.
Coe said Gay’s description was partly accurate.
“Our group was in hopes that the application to Act 250 for the expansion would be disapproved, but we were at least pleased by the conditions attached,” he said.
Members of his group chose not to appeal the decision, he said, “for risk of possibly losing those conditions.”
Coe said the appeal of the state’s initial decision isn’t scheduled to go to court until next year. In the meantime, he and his peers plan to keep opposing the expansion. And Casella plans to move forward with construction, Gay said at the board meeting.
Swan said the demonstration will be peaceful and quiet.
“Come join us. Add your voice to ours,” he said.
