WeCare Compost Plant Says Marlborough Violated Contract

Article by WeCare Environment

WeCare Environmental LLC yesterday asked a federal judge to find that the City of Marlborough violated its contract with WeCare when the City ordered the plant to shut down last Friday, then paid a different contractor to take the City’s residential trash to a landfill instead of recycling it at the WeCare composting plant. The motion seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction against the City will be heard in US District Court Wednesday morning.

“We believe the plant was shut down for no good reason, certainly without any objective testing, and it is costing Marlborough taxpayers thousands of dollars every day to truck their trash to a landfill instead of recycling it at our plant,” said President of WeCare Environmental LLC, Phil McCarthy.

The city ordered the plant to shut down based solely on a visual inspection of a sample of Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant wastewater, or effluent, running from the WeCare composting facility back to the Easterly Plant for final treatment. WeCare uses effluent from the Easterly Plant to, among other things, remove composting operation odors from its air emissions, and then sends the effluent back to the Easterly Plant for final treatment. Leachate from a City-owned sewage sludge landfill located behind the WeCare facility also runs into the same pipe system so it too can be treated by the Easterly Plant. The water sample appeared cloudy on Tuesday because the two pumps that move that water through the system had been shut down for nearly two days with no notification to WeCare officials.

The initial pump shutdown, the cause of which is under investigation, in turn caused sediment to build up in the pipes. On Tuesday, a WeCare employee noticed a blinking warning light indicating the system was in danger of overflowing. Only then did the City tell WeCare that the pumps had been off for two days. When the pumps were finally restarted on Tuesday, built up sediment caused by the idle pumps made the water appear cloudier than normal. The City then claimed the cloudy water would damage the Easterly Plant, ordered the pumps shut down again and placed locks on them so they could not be restarted. Even though subsequent testing of the water by a certified lab showed the effluent posed no danger to the Easterly Plant, and that WeCare’s component portion was well within its permit limits, the City has refused to lift the closure order, hence the court action on Wednesday.

Once the City shut the pumps down and locked them, WeCare attempted to reduce the water flow in the system to keep effluent from overwhelming the system and spilling on the ground. WeCare told the City that it would temporarily reduce the water volume it uses to account for the City’s conduct and to avert an overflow. The City then claimed that the flow reduction violated WeCare’s operating permit and ordered WeCare’s entire operation to shut down. As part of that order, the City also told WeCare it had to remove all materials, including compost, from the site, but told the company it could not use the commercial scales on the premises to weigh its trucks prior to loading. This contradictory order essentially prevented WeCare from complying with the City’s wishes, since all trucks must be weighed when empty in order to know the weight of the material that is then loaded onto each truck.

“So they locked our pumps, then when we did the environmentally responsible thing to keep effluent from spilling all over the place, they told us we were out of compliance and shut us down,” said Mr. McCarthy. “And they know we have to use the scales to weigh each truck before it takes a load. This whole thing makes no sense at all unless there’s some other agenda at work here.”

WeCare has reported the current situation to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the operation for compliance with state environmental regulations.

On Wednesday, WeCare will ask the court to set aside the City’s unauthorized order and allow the plant to resume recycling the City’s trash and sewage sludge, which it uses to make agricultural-grade compost. WeCare and the City most recently have been attempting court assisted mediation to work out differences over the remaining four plus years of WeCare’s 20-year contract. Recently, however, the City noted it prefers to go to trial, even though a trial date would be more than a year away.

Meanwhile, the City has yet to rule on the wastewater discharge permit application WeCare filed with the City in February, which Marlborough officials at the time said would take a few weeks to review and approve. The permit would place conditions on the effluent pumped by the locked pumps from WeCare and the City’s sludge landfill back to the Easterly Plant.

In addition to recycling the City’s residential trash and sewage sludge, WeCare is also the largest permitted food waste recycler in the state. This is important because in October of this year a new state regulation mandates that commercial food waste generators, including restaurants, supermarkets and large institutional cafeterias, such as Marlborough Public Schools, will have to use a facility like WeCare’s to recycle that food waste. Many local and area businesses covered by the food waste ban, but not Marlborough Public Schools, already use WeCare for that purpose. If WeCare is not able to handle that waste, these food waste generators will have to pay to truck it out of Marlborough to another facility.