BERLIN — The city council last week heard a presentation on the proposal to remediate and cap the abandoned Dummer Yard landfill and create a leachate treatment facility there.
Jon Goudreau, superintendent of the city’s Wastewater Treatment and Collection System, spoke at the council's June 16 work session about the proposal, which developers say could bring $10 million in revenues to the city over the five- to 10-year life of the proposed project.
Goudreau met with the council at their request.
When the Fraser Papers pulp mill in Berlin closed in 2006, the landfill, already closed, was left abandoned. Between 1917 and 1997, Dummer Yard was where the waste from pulp and papermaking was discarded.
“The Dummer Yard landfill was a dump before there was a Clean Water Act,” Goudreau said. “Everything that the mill wanted to get rid of went in there.”
Grenier asked Goodreau how many gallons of leachate are treated at the Dummer Yard landfill.
Landfill leachate is “the liquid that forms when waste in a landfill breaks down and water filters through it,” according to website biologyinsights.com. The water can come from a rainstorm, for instance.
About 4 million gallons a year are treated, he answered. As meeting minutes explain, “the agreement the City has with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services permits an average of 3 gallons per minute over a six-month period. (Goodreau’s) best guess, with the information he has is that the city is treating the maximum amount permitted which equals about 4 million gallons per year. The city is picking up the cost to do so.
What the leachate contains is of concern. Goodreau said he did not know for sure if the leachate from Dummer Yard contains organic matter. There is the presence of PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances coming from the site. PFAS are sometimes called the “forever chemicals.”
“The leachate on the property is very visible. In my opinion, it’s hazardous,” said City Councilor Paul Grenier.
Sometimes during a storm, the system is overrun and Goodreau closes off the leachate coming off the landfill so that it does not overwhelm the pump station, which keeps the city’s wastewater treatment system properly operating.
Goudreau said a study by a set of engineers is needed to learn better how to treat the leachate along with what it will cost to do the treatment.
On a related note not discussed at the June 16 council work session, a public education campaign known as “Better Berlin, Better NH, the Dummer Yard Repurposing Project” has begun. The website is betterberlinnh.com. Media relations consultant Montagne Powers is working with the entities proposing the remediation and cleanup of the landfill. As noted on the aforementioned website: “The project is being proposed by LFOD Northwoods, comprising Newington-based North & South Construction Services, a leading commercial, industrial, and institutional construction company, and W.L. French, a full-service contracting and environmental management firm with more than 50 years of experience providing high quality site development, soil management and environmental remediation services. The project’s engineering firm is Sanborn, Head & Associates, Inc., which has extensive experience in brownfields redevelopment and has completed a Summary Report on Dummer Yard for NH Department of Environmental Services.”
New interest in the Dummer Yard landfill began in November 2024 when Berlin Sun reporter Barbara Tetreault wrote about a proposal at the former landfill site to open a soil monofill site. The non-hazardous soil would come from sites under development, such as building development, from across New England.
As betterberlinnh.com posts, “the non-hazardous impacted soil is fill that contains low level of contaminants. Our proposed solid disposal facility will be sited, designed, permitted and operated under the New Hampshire DES and city of Berlin rules and regulations.”
This is the non-hazardous soil that will be trucked into the former landfill site via numerous truck trips and that is estimated to generate up to $10 million in tipping fees over the life of the former landfill facility. Money from the fees will bring revenue to the city.
The Dummer Yard repurposing project includes, as betterberlinnh.com notes: “repair the cap system, properly manage (the) leachate; re-establish the groundwater monitoring system.” Further, “Create a safe, regulated, double-lined soil disposal facility that will not accept municipal solid waste. Not create odors like municipal solid waste landfills and only operate for five to 10 years.” Back taxes from the site of about $100,000 owed to the city would be paid, per the betterberlinnh.com campaign. The cost to clean up Dummer Yard, that website states, is $20 million to $30 million.
The public education campaign follows a March meeting at city hall auditorium where project representatives and others interested in the proposal introduced the Dummer Yard repurposing project. A petition against the proposal began circulating, with Derrah Street resident Rachel Fillion leading the drive. City resident Monique Gagnon worked with Fillion on the petition.
A concern of heavy truck traffic carrying the soil from development sites is one point of contention.
Currently, the city does not receive financial help from the state to deal with the leachate, or to improve what needs to be improved at Dummer Yard. A 2007 agreement between the city and DES to oversee or clean up the site dissolved 12 years later. In 2019, a representative from the state Department of Environmental Services called and asked if the city could take over the landfill as no money was available from DES to do so, as Goodreau recounted.
Goudreau said he knows that site needs remediation.
“We have no enforcement until there’s a new owner at the facility. The city’s in a bad spot,” said Goodreau.