Town To Vote On Landfill

Marblehead residents will decide June 15 if the town will "pay the piper," as the health director described it, and raise $22.23 million in debt to build a new landfill transfer station and install a cap on the existing trash on the site at the northern end of town.

The alternative is for the town to face substantial environmental fines and reduced trash disposal services.

"The landfill issue has been so long in the pipeline, it would be a shame if the town didn't take the final step in the process," Selectman Judy Jacobi said. 

The landfill question tops the ballot of 10 issues to be decided by the voters, each of which would be an exclusion override of Proposition 2 ½, the annual limit of 2.5 percent that a city can raise property taxes.

If the landfill funding is approved, the owner of a median single family home valued at $512,000 would be taxed an additional $159.65 each year for the 20-year life of the bonds sold to fund the project.

The landfill site, created 75 years ago, when it was on the outskirts of town, is now highly regulated by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). "We can't put a shovel in the ground without a permit from DEP," said Wayne Attridge, the public health director.

There are no health issues posed by the site, although the site is contaminated, he said.

In the past, the site had open pit burning and incinerated its own trash, spewing ash over the property, until the federal Clean Air Act of 1975 put an end to that practice, Attridge said.

Today the trash is sorted at the 17.5-acre landfill site, most of which is owned by the town. The trash that cannot be recycled is hauled away by truck to a Saugus facility for incineration. The recyclable trash is sold.

Attridge and consultant Stephen Wright with SEA Consultants made a presentation this month to a Town Meeting on the landfill. They told the residents that the town has several options, including building a new transfer station and capping the existing landfill, closing the facility and capping the existing landfill or doing nothing.

By a vote of 484-63, those who attended the Town Meeting voted overwhelmingly to support building a new transfer station and capping the site. That vote put the issue on the ballot.

Three years ago, Marblehead voters approved design plans to demolish the transfer station and build a new station, which was the most expensive of the proposals presented.

"I have the utmost respect for the taxpayers and residents of Marblehead. They have always taken care of the town's infrastructure," Attridge said. "This is a quality of life issue.  Historically Marblehead has voted for things like this. It is the responsible environmental thing to do."

Most residents understand that Marblehead has little choice in the issue because DEP has ordered the town to clean up the landfill site, he said.

"A few people want to blame somebody," Attridge said.  "But the only people to blame are in Waterside cemetery."

Attridge believes the new facility will create an opportunity to increase revenues at the landfill because it would improve the town's ability to capture recyclable material.  The town now generates between $265,000 and $285,000 a year by selling off recyclable materials.  The health director believes that could be increased to at least $300,000.

It costs the town $95 a ton to haul trash to Saugus. The town generates about 10,000 tons of trash a year.

If the new facility can separate out more recyclable material, it can reduce its tonnage it pays to be hauled away. It can sell the recyclable material for about $20 per ton – a net savings to the town of about $115 a ton. 

The existing landfill will be capped with gravel, a rubber membrane and topped with asphalt to keep rainwater from seeping through the trash and carrying contaminants into the soil or a stream that crosses the landfill. 

"We have to keep it out of that stream," Atteridge said. 

Much of the area will be landscaped with grass, trees and bushes to make it as visually appealing as possible to those who live nearby, he said.

The project, if approved, would begin in 2011 and completed in 2013.

On the ballot is also a proposal for the town to buy the adjacent property at 57 Stony Brook Road, which has contaminated soil from the incinerator ash. The house, owned by Jeffrey Dinsmore, was built in the 1990s. Dinsmore, calling the situation "a worst nightmare," bought the house in 2004, about six months before the town agreed with the DEP order to cap the landfill.

Marblehead recently finished negotiating a settlement of about $900,000 to purchase the Dinsmore house. The Dinsmores in turn would release the town from liability.