New Williston landfill fills the need to save money

Vermont Business Magazine, Jun 01, 2005 by Kelley, Kevin

Despite expressing initial interest in Ecocycle's waste-transformation process (see accompanying story), Chittenden County's waste managers are moving ahead with plans to build a regional landfill in Williston. The current timetable calls for the $30 million lion facility to begin operating three years from now.

The board of the Chittenden Solid Waste District "hasn't seen any technology, on the horizon that Would do away with landfills," says district manager Tom Moreau. "The board believes that building a landfill is probably in the best interest of the county, so we will be using the time between now and 2008 for design and permitting."

The district itself would build the landfill, but its operation would be put out to bid, Moreau says.

Moreau acknowledges that a regional landfill will not be needed in the foreseeable future to handle the trash produced by residents of the Burlington area. But the county would reap substantial savings if the landfill is built, he adds.

Rising fuel prices are increasing the cost of trucking Chittenden County's solid waste to the two landfills where it is currently dumped one in Moretown and the other in Coventry. A consulting firm retained by the Chittenden Solid Waste District projects savings of between $80 million and $160 million if the regional landfill is built on a proposed site on Redmond Road in Williston.

Most of the estimated savings, which are calculated in current dollars over the 30-year lifespan of the landfill, would take the form of reduced fuel outlays. Additional economies would be achieved, Moreau says, by eliminating the double handling that now occurs when waste is first taken to a Williston transfer station before being shipped to Moretown and Coventry.

Planners were also able to subtract $4.8 million from the potential cost of the landfill as a result of a court ruling in April. Chittenden County Superior Court Judge Matthew Katz said then that the owner of a Redmond Road gravel pit would have to be paid $4 million for property to be seized for the landfill not $8.8 million as had been decided by an Addison County Superior Court jury in 2004.

Katz ruled that Hinesburg Sand and Gravel, owner of the 75-acre pit, is not legally entitled to $4.8 million in compensation for projected business losses as a result of the envisioned seizure.

An attorney for the gravel company has said he will appeal the ruling to the Vermont Supreme Court.

The solid waste district has put aside $4 million that could be used to buy the Redmond Road property, Moreau says. But the district board has not yet decided to make the investment.

Such a move would likely generate considerable controversy. Environmentalists and local residents could be expected to raise a host of objections to building a regional landfill in Vermont's most populous county.

"We're not underestimating the difficulty that might be involved," Moreau says. He notes, however, that Williston has tentatively agreed to the plan, which was also endorsed a decade ago by voters in the 18 towns that make up the solid waste district.

Even as these plans proceed, Casella Waste Systems is moving to expand its Coventry landfill. Casella has a permit to increase the landfill's capacity to 370,000 tons of solid waste per year from its current maximum of 140,000 tons. Vermont generates about 500,000 tons of trash annually. The waste deposited at the Coventry site comes from communities throughout northern and central Vermont, says Casella Vice President Joseph Fusco.

The planned incremental expansion of the Coventry landfill has stirred concerns among Quebec residents within the Lake Memphremagog watershed. They fear that the landfill could pollute rivers and streams that feed into the lake, which straddles the border between the United States and Canada.

A regional land-use commission has told Casella it must address these concerns by detailing protections for the lake and its watershed.

Fusco agrees that the Coventry and Moretown sites can probably absorb all the trash that Chittenden County is expected to produce during the next 30 years. But he echoes Moreau in suggesting that waste managers would be creating a sound legacy for future generations by building a regional landfill in the county.