BERLIN — The city learned additional details about the Dummer Yard Repurposing Project and company officials fielded questions about a variety of topics including asbestos and truck traffic for over an hour at Monday’s city council meeting.
LFOD Northwoods, a joint venture between W. L. French Excavating Corporation of North Billerica, Mass., and North-South Construction Services of Portsmouth, has a purchase and sale agreement for the 400-acre site off Hutchins Street that contains the abandoned Dummer Yard landfill. The company has already spent over $800,000 investigating a proposal that would remediate the existing landfill at an estimated cost of $20 million to $30 million. To cover the cost of the remediation, LFOD would establish a soil disposal facility that would accept contaminated soil from across New England. As the host community, Berlin would receive $2 a ton or an estimated $10 million over the five-to-10-year life of the soil disposal facility. LFOD said it would also pay an estimated $150,000 in back taxes owed to the city.
Eric Steinhauser, principal in charge of the project for W.L. French, detailed the environmental issues at the Dummer Yard landfill including the amount of leachate generated because the landfill cap is in disrepair and stormwater is allowed to infiltrate into the landfill. The landfill was built in the early 1900s for paper mill wastes including sludge, bark boiler ash, wastes, papermaking chemicals and likely petroleum and asbestos-containing materials and has not been maintained for several decades.
Steinhauser said sections of the landfill need to be recapped and regraded. He reminded the council that Berlin Wastewater System Superintendent Jon Goodreau had reported that the city treats 4 million gallons of leachate annually from Dummer Yard and at times, during heavy rains, the system is overwhelmed. Furthermore, under an agreement with the state, the city is not paid for treating that Dummer Yard leachate which normally would cost $120,000 a year.
Steinhauser said repairing the cap on the Dummer Yard landfill and re-engineering the leachate management system should reduce the leachate going to the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Resolving those issues and re-establishing the groundwater management system, he said, would make the Dummer Yard landfill environmentally stable.
The other part of the project would have LFOD build and operate a soil disposal facility. Steinhauser stressed the facility will not accept trash and will be limited to non-hazardous contaminated soil mostly from housing projects across New England. He said it would also accept street sweepings, ash, and some material that may contain asbestos. It will not accept materials classified as hazardous under state and federal regulations. The soil disposal facility would have a five-to-10-year life and would accept a total of five tons of material.
Company officials said LFOD is still in the due diligence stage and noted its investigation has been delayed waiting for some new rules and regulations to take effect. The legislature also rejected an effort to put a moratorium on new landfills. As a result, LFOD officials said they do not have all the details the company would like on items like the soil disposal facility capacity, the height and the composition of the leachate and leachate treatment methods. Under its current schedule, LFOD will spend the next year collecting data and designing the project with a very large hydrogeologic and geotechnical investigation that will start in the next few months. The permitting process, which includes site plan approval from Berlin and various permits from the state, can take a year.
Asking for the council’s support, Steinhauser said the project would clean up the Dummer Yard landfill so it is no longer a liability to the city. He said the soil disposal facility would provide positive economic impacts for the city including jobs, new taxes and local fees, and the community host fee.
After the presentation, Steinhauser, along with Director of Environmental Services Jarrett Everton, and Jake McManus of North South Construction, spent about an hour answering questions from the council ranging from local hiring and traffic concerns to asbestos and landfill experience.
The three officials said LFOD intends to make hiring local a priority and estimated 10 to 15 jobs on site and an additional 50 to 60 trucking jobs would be created. The trucks would be similar in size to the ones going to Mt. Carberry, which abuts Dummer Yard. The company is estimating up to 65 trucks a day working only on weekdays. The officials said the tipping fee would help the city offset any impact on city roads.
W.L. French has been in business for over 50 years and has been involved with landfills for almost half that time. The company has five similar projects going on right now and offered to provide references.
Mayor Robert Cone said he received a number of questions from citizens and said a main concern was the fact that some of the soil accepted may contain asbestos. While naturally occurring in soil and rocks, asbestos presents a health threat when its fibers are released into the air. He asked how air quality will be protected. LFOD responded that such material will be double bagged and sealed before it is loaded on trucks and sent to Berlin. Once it arrives in Berlin, it will be offloaded into a designated disposal area and covered so the asbestos is not open to the air. Air monitoring stations will be set up in different areas of the site and personnel at the site will also have to wear an air monitor.
Steinhauser explained that the soil disposal landfill will have a leachate system but the soils will generate far less leachate than a typical landfill. The leachate from the soil monofill will be treated at the city’s wastewater treatment facility at LFOD’s expense. The company hopes remediating the Dummer Yard landfill will significantly reduce the current leachate coming from there. He said the company would also be interested in talking to the city about setting up a high-interest account to help with leachate costs at Dummer Yard.
LFOD officials have set up a website at betterberlinnh.com to post information about the project.
Councilor Steve Korzen said he finds that residents see the need to clean up the Dummer Yard landfill but don’t want to see contaminated soil brought to the site.
“We feel like we’ve become a dumping ground for Massachusetts,” he reported, adding that it seems like the city that trees built is becoming the city that trash built. The council has received a petition with hundreds of signatures opposing the project.
Korzen asked what happens when the soil disposal facility closes in ten years.
The officials said once the soil disposal facility is closed, LFOD will be responsible for the site. The company would be open to suggestions for the use of the land including a solar farm. There will be a bond created to ensure it is properly capped when the project is concluded.