Overview:
Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson has decided not to pursue further expansion of the city's sludge landfill, citing environmental and fiscal concerns. The decision ends a decade-long effort by environmental organizations to halt the $12m expansion, which opponents warned could lead to contamination of neighboring wetlands, rivers, and wells. Nicholson will explore alternatives for disposing of the city's wastewater treatment plant sludge.
GARDNER – Mayor Michael Nicholson has decided that expansion of the sludge landfill would not be in the city’s best interests and has discontinued further work, though alternatives may be explored.
“When dealing with projects related to the environment,” Nicholson told a the Feb. 17 meeting of the Gardner City Council, “it is important that we follow all of the regulations and processes that are in place at the state and federal levels.”
Nicholson told the council that, following his review of reports received from the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act [MEPA] office and the state Office of Environmental Protection, “I have directed the city’s Department of Public Works and Engineering Department to discontinue any further pursuing of any further expansion of the existing sludge landfill. It is my opinion that further expansion is not in the best interests of city and our ratepayers, either fiscally or environmentally.”
Messages left with the mayor’s office seeking further comment have not been returned.
Nicholson’s decision brings to an end a more than decade-long effort by a coalition of local, regional, and statewide environmental organizations to halt the proposed $12 million expansion, while examining other environmental and economical alternatives.
The original plans put forward by the city’s Public Works and Engineering Department called for adding 4.3 acres to the existing 5.9-acre landfill, located off Route 68 near the Templeton line. Opponents of the move warned the expansion could lead to contamination of neighboring wetlands, Otter River – a tributary of the Millers and Connecticut rivers – and wells that supply drinking water to nearby neighborhoods.
“Anyone celebrating decisions like this,” Nicholson said, “just remember that we are nowhere close to being out of the woods yet on this issue, but we’ve at least made a step forward.”
Athol-based Miller River Watershed Council [MRWC] was among the groups opposed to the expansion. Ivan Ussach, executive director of the MRWC, told the Athol Daily News, “It’s hard to say that the nail is in the coffin, but it certainly looks that way. The mayor has asked his staff to discontinue efforts to move forward with the expansion, which would have been very costly at this point.”
In addition to the MRWC, groups that made up the anti-expansion coalition included the Athol Bird and Nature Club, Gardner Clean Air, Clean Water Action, the Connecticut River Conservancy, MassPIRG, the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust and the North County Land Trust.
Nicholson told the council he would keep city officials updated on efforts to find workable alternatives for the disposal of the sludge from the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Alternatives proposed over the past decade include trucking the sludge to a facility in Fitchburg or constructing a hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) facility, which can convert sludge into “green” building material or be used as a clean source of biofuel.
Ussach said Nicholson has committed the city to “a thorough review of all the options.” He added that the mayor’s announcement was an unexpected surprise.
“There wasn’t really anything happening from the city in terms of trying to move ahead,” he said. “Nothing happened for the longest time. Not too long ago, someone from the city said, ‘It’s in the mayor’s hands right now.’ So, the next question was, ‘What’s the mayor going to do? Is he going to do nothing or is he going to try to find the money to do the expansion?’ Then we got word that the mayor had asked to make a presentation to the City Council on the subject of the sludge landfill expansion. We didn’t really know what he was going to say until he stepped up to the microphone – but I was not expecting him to pull the plug.”