This commentary is by Peggy Stevens of Charleston, an advisory committee representative for DUMP (Don’t Undermine Memphremagog’s Purity).
The torrential rains of the last weeks have wreaked havoc and destruction on every corner of our state. My heart goes out to all the Vermonters suffering from these high waters.
This “hundred-year” climate disaster — caused by climate change, which increases the likelihood of imminent repetition — raises more urgent concerns, as well, about the perilous siting of Vermont’s only landfill in Coventry, uphill and close by the Black River, wetlands and South Bay of Lake Memphremagog.
As many of our roads in Orleans County were closed due to flooding, including the Airport Road in Coventry on which the NEWSVT landfill sits, I worry.
I worry not only about where our state’s solid waste goes when the landfill is closed, as happened this month, in Coventry. We are assured by a state Agency of Natural Resources spokesperson that trash can be held at transfer stations, but for how long?
I worry that we have no Plan B for environmentally sound solid waste disposal in Vermont. I worry that Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources secretary, an appointee of Gov. Scott, has continued to permit the expansion of this “house of cards,” soon to include an experimental “pilot” leachate treatment facility if NEWSVT has its way, adding to the environmental burden and risk on site.
I worry what shape the landfill is in, literally. Is it still a towering mountain of trash or is it slumping, as I have seen in photographs of landfill landslides in other places?
I worry about what is in the floodwaters as gravity draws runoff from the landfill down to the surrounding, waterlogged land and on to the river and lake. I worry about the fact that wastewater treatment facility sludge — loaded with toxic contaminants, including PFAS — is being used as landfill cover and that heavy rains are causing toxics to leach from that contaminated cover, entering runoff into the surrounding area.
For example, what was in the effluent being pumped from beneath the scales to the chain-link fence and down the roadside, witnessed at the end of last week by local residents who’d like to know?
I worry about the leachate collection systems becoming overwhelmed. While we are assured that collection tank capacity is adequate as of July 13 after 6.5 inches of rain had been reported, how much rain has fallen since then, how long will it take all that rain to percolate through the landfill as leachate, and how will increased numbers of gallons be managed by existing collection capacity? Has there been an increase in leachate collection and trucking out of area in anticipation of or response to increased leachate output?
Answers to these questions are required in light of these unprecedented amounts of rainfall, amounts that may well exceed the “five-day event” we are assured “the landfill was designed and is operated to handle (in) large storm events as required in the Solid Waste Management Rules.”
(Take a deep breath and read on.)
I worry: How much leachate is in primary and secondary liners and in the underdrain of each cell? Does it ever exceed the depth limit of 12 inches as in permitting requirements? If so, this is cause for major concern. What happens when that 12-inch limit is exceeded?
I worry about the underdrains (UDs for short), which are not supposed to contain any PFAS chemicals or other toxic contaminants, and yet they have consistently been shown to do so. Has the leachate in any of these liners been tested since last week for PFAS and other toxic contaminants?
UDs 1 and 2 are being pumped and collected as leachate, but not UD3, which has been and is permitted to discharge into the wetlands.
I worry about the increased output in gallons per day of UD3 that are permitted to be discharged into the wetlands adjacent to the landfill and the Black River — normally between 4,000 and 13,000 gallons daily. Have the gallons per day or excessive levels of toxic PFAS, arsenic and cadmium content known to contaminate UD3 discharge been measured recently?
I worry about who is monitoring rills and gullies and tears in the landfill cap that lead to leachate breakouts; how about clogged stormwater runoff collection ditches? All of these have been identified as problems in need of remediation in 2021 and 2022 inspection reports. Who is watching and measuring to see how much runoff is escaping collection and entering the surrounding environment?
The short-term question is: Has the Agency of Natural Resources developed emergency monitoring plans to address these “historic” torrential rains and flood conditions at the landfill? And if not, why not?
What plans are in place to prevent environmental contamination from increased threat of climate-change-induced flooding of our watershed? These events will become the norm until and after climate change is fully addressed.
The longer-term question is: When will our Legislature take this environmental-disaster-waiting-to-happen (if it has not already) that is our state’s only landfill solely out of the hands of the Agency of Natural Resources?”
The time is way past due to draft an updated solid waste policy and rules that place priority on environmental protection and environmental justice. The current plan is not working to serve either purpose. Our natural resources, including our Northeast Kingdom water resources, are at risk of permanent degradation. Our public health and safety, and that of 175,000 Canadians whose drinking water reservoir is Lake Memphremagog, are at greater risk than ever before.
Regionalized solid waste management facilities, sited in geologically appropriate places away from water bodies and out of the reach of floodwaters, would include recycling, composting and solid waste disposal, nearest to where the greatest percentage of Vermont’s waste is generated.
What seems like a no-brainer to most Vermonters escapes the imagination, or political will, of the state agencies in charge of the current broken system.
As Ansel Adams stated so poignantly years and years ago, “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.” It is up to the people, and our legislators, to right this wrong, starting now.
