Rail facility opposition continues

Construction & Demolition Recycling, July-August, 2004

Champion City Recovery's plans for a solid waste transfer station in Brockton, Mass., is facing legislation designed to stop the building of the site. The facility has been opposed by some nearby residents for some time, and now, according to the Brockton Enterprise, State Representative William Galvin, who represents neighboring Avon, has filed an amendment to the upcoming state budget that would ban any solid waste facility from being built within an expanded protective area of a public water supply well anywhere in the state. The proposed site is within a half a mile of wells that provide Avon residents with water.

Champion City reportedly wants to bring 1,000 tons per day of municipal solid waste (MSW) to the transfer station, process it to separate and sort recyclable materials and then ship the waste by railroad cars to a landfill in Ohio. The company already operates a C&D transfer station that uses similar techniques, located adjacent to the proposed MSW facility.

The amendment would specifically prohibit putting any solid waste facility within the Zone II area of an existing public water supply. Zone II is a protective area of an aquifer that can contribute water to a well. Construction is already banned in Zone I, which is a 400-foot protective-radius area immediately around a well. The Zone II prohibition would apply to any solid waste facility that had not received a site assignment on or before Jan. 1, 2004.

The Brockton Enterprise reports that Jack Walsh, president and CEO of Champion City Recovery, said he is disappointed by the initiative because he has said repeatedly that his firm is willing to spend $5 million or more to get rid of contaminated soil and an underground petroleum and gasoline plume at the site.

On its Web site, Champion City Recovery and its parent company, Massachusetts Waste Systems Inc., refer to their operations as abiding "by all the rules and regulations regarding the safe handling and disposal of waste, as well as, recycling."

The company's C&D recycling service is marketed to contractors, sub-contractors, roofers and remodelers operating near its Brockton facility.