Burnt ash arriving in Shrewsbury from Saugus has residents concerned

SHREWSBURY – Judy Vedder didn’t know this was happening.

Vedder, a longtime Shrewsbury resident, didn’t realize that the waste burned in Saugus is trucked to Shrewsbury. It started on April 1.

The development raises questions: why is this happening, who allowed this and what does it mean for residents, especially for their health.

Although Vedder has lived in Shrewsbury for more than 30 years, including 20 years as a member of the City Council and nine years as a member of the city’s Finance Commission, she had no idea that ash was being trucked from Saugus, 50 miles away. was transported to her city.

“My impression was that we only take ash from the Millbury factory to our landfill. I am not aware that we are allowed to take ash from other factories.”

The said mill in Millbury, Vedder, is owned by WIN Waste Innovations.

Since the 1980s, Shrewsbury and WIN have had a contract that sends the town’s waste to WIN’s waste incinerator in Millbury. The result is ash and WIN trucks take it back to Shrewsbury, where WIN operates the landfill at 620 Hartford Turnpike. Shrewsbury owns the land on which the landfill is located.

Actually, it is called a monofill because it only contains burnt ash. WIN pays Shrewsbury about $1.5 million annually to deposit ashes there.

WIN did not respond when asked how much it is paying Shrewsbury to dump additional Saugus ash. Documents provided by Shrewsbury City Manager Kevin Mizikar do not indicate whether any payments were made to Shrewsbury for the receipt of ashes from Saugus.

Why do the ashes come from Saugus to Shrewsbury?

In a nutshell: WIN’s Saugus monofill is running out of space, based on government regulatory requirements. So half of the ash generated is trucked to Shrewsbury to keep the Saugus monofill running.

According to WIN, this amounts to an average of six truck journeys per day, with approximately 4,500 tons of ash being dumped every month. In 2023, before the influx from Saugus, WIN transported approximately 308,000 tons of ash and other residuals from various sources, including the Millbury incinerator, to Shrewsbury.

Can WIN do this?

WIN received approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection to use a portion of the Saugus monofill as a staging area for transporting ash to other approved facilities. The DEP said its approval is not necessary to make the shipment. The only requirement, according to the DEP, is that state environmental officials and the Saugus Board of Health be given 14 days’ notice before sending waste to another location.

This is not the first time WIN has transported ash from Saugus to Shrewsbury. From January to April 2018, WIN transported all of its ashes from Saugus to Shrewsbury. This happened during a permitting process to modify the Saugus monofill.

Is there a toxic risk to Shrewsbury?

The state Department of Environmental Protection noted in an April 2018 letter to WIN that detectable concentrations of metals in the combined ash at the Saugus Landfill consistently reported below EPA hazardous levels. As a result, the ash is defined as non-hazardous solid waste and can be disposed of in a landfill.

WIN noted that before arriving at Shrewsbury, the ash is processed through an advanced screening system to extract recyclable ferrous and non-ferrous metal. In other words, metals that contain or lack iron. Third-party consultants and laboratories conduct robust environmental testing, with results regularly submitted to the state DEP and the Shrewsbury Board of Health, according to WIN.

Diane Jones believes ash transported from Saugus to Shrewsbury could have negative environmental impacts. Jones has lived in Shrewsbury for 35 years, serves on the town’s conservation committee and worries that Saugus ash could cause Shrewsbury’s monofill to fill up faster.

If this happens, Jones says more solid waste could be trucked to landfills outside of Massachusetts. That would be a terrible outcome, Jones said, because those landfills will bear the brunt of solid waste-producing methane that contributes to global warming and sludge that contains toxins.

“It becomes a problem elsewhere and it can be very toxic to other people,” says Jones.

Mizikar noted that Shrewsbury’s monofill is expected to reach capacity in 2032. The estimate is based on information from WIN, Mizikar said.

Vedder also worries that shipments from Saugus will fill Shrewsbury’s monofill more quickly. However, her concern is not the environment, but financial. If the local monofill is tapped, it means WIN will no longer make annual payments of $1.5 million.

“That worries me as a taxpayer. It will shorten the life of our city’s revenue stream,” Vedder said

How long will this take?

It is unclear how long WIN will transport ash from Saugus to Shrewsbury.

WIN said in an email that it needs state approval to operate the Saugus landfill beyond its current permitted capacity. The limit is based on height, with a top of 15 meters above sea level.

If some Saugus residents had their way, the monofill and adjacent incinerator, also owned by WIN, would already be gone. They claim it is an environmental hazard that endangers the health of the community.

They also cite a consent order executed in 1989 by the state DEP and Resco, WIN’s predecessor company, to bring Resco’s ash management and disposal requirements into compliance with Massachusetts solid waste treatment and disposal regulations.

The consent order directed the landfill to close by December 31, 1996. However, the order has been amended eleven times by the state DEP. Many of the changes were based on design changes made by Resco/WIN to reflect available landfill capacity. The changes also include payments by the company to protect the Rumney Marsh, a sensitive environmental area where the landfill is located.

Critical concern for the environment

The state has designated the Saugus Landfill as an area of critical environmental importance and previously said the landfill expansion would not comply with environmental regulations.

In a November 2021 DEP letter to state Rep. Jeffrey Turco, D-Winthrop, then-DEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg said the landfill did not meet the necessary site suitability criteria to allow expansion in the area of critical environmental concerns. As a result, no positive determination of site suitability would be received.

“Without a positive site suitability determination by MassDEP, a proposal to change the facility’s site assignment to allow for vertical expansion would not be sent to the Saugus Board of Health for consideration,” the letter said.

A March 2023 DEP letter to Turco and state Rep. Jessica Giannino, D-Revere, from then-DEP Acting Commissioner Gary Moran supported Suuberg’s earlier determination.

Saugus Vote: What Does It Mean?

Meanwhile, the Saugus Board of Selectmen voted 3-2 to support a host community agreement brokered by WIN. It would allow WIN to continue using the landfill in exchange for paying the city $20 million in economic benefits, along with investments to reduce environmental impacts.

Debra Panetta, chair of the Saugus Board of Selectmen, said the vote was only done to ensure the city would get something out of WIN in case the DEP gave WIN another extension to keep the monofill open.

Selectman has no authority to decide a host community agreement, Panetta said, noting the only person who does is City Manager Scott Crabtree. According to Panetta, Crabtree will not sign the agreement at this time. A call and email to Crabtree seeking comment was not returned.

Panetta also claimed that WIN is only interested in saving money because it is cheaper to dump ash from the company’s incinerator in Saugus rather than trucking the material to Shrewsbury.

“We want the landfill closed as quickly as possible, it’s as simple as that,” Panetta said.

WIN sees it differently. “We believe the best financial and environmental option for the city, the state and our company is to continue to manage ash on site and keep additional trucks off our roads,” said Mary Urban, senior director of communications and community at WIN, in an email. “We hope the ash shipment is temporary as we continue to work toward a signed HCA with the City of Saugus.”

Contact Henry Schwan at [email protected]. Follow him on X: @henrytelegram.