A thorough review of the Moretown Landfill expansion project will continue this week with a site visit scheduled for Thursday, September 27, at 4 p.m. Afterwards, the town’s development review board (DRB) will conduct a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. at the temporary town offices on Route 2 next to the landfill.
The site visit and hearing will likely be well attended as many Moretown residents have expressed concern regarding Interstate Waste Service’s plan to construct a fourth trash cell and thus expand the landfill’s life by 12 to 16 years. As it stands now, the landfill only has enough available space to remain in operation until March.
If the landfill closes, Moretown will lose over $500,000 in annual tipping fees from the host agreement it maintains with Interstate Waste Services. If the landfill expands, nearby residents are worried about increased traffic, odor and groundwater pollution.
At the most recent DRB hearing, which took place on September 6, the board decided that Interstate Waste Services’ application for expansion was lacking in detail but gave Moretown Landfill general manager Tom Badowski until September 27 to resubmit the company’s application, complete with a comprehensive record of the past construction and current condition of the site’s trash cells and how the proposed fourth trash cell fits into that context.
The site visit will also help the DRB understand the expansion project, as it will allow them to better visualize the effects of the landfill on nearby property owners. “I think it’s really going to take a while to walk around and get a sense of what [the landfill] is proposing,” DRB chair John Riley said.
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