LEBANON — City officials hope to once again accept construction and demolition debris at the Lebanon landfill, but not everyone’s happy with rules that could accompany the change.
Contractors and officials from neighboring towns worry that increased tipping costs and a prohibition on “mixed loads” — household trash mixed in with construction waste — could negate the benefits of using the Route 12A facility.
They asked the City Council late last month to reconsider the regulations, or at least clarify the repercussions of bringing a mixed load to West Lebanon. Being turned away, they said, could result in lost customers and long drives to competing facilities.
“When you’re used to driving 30 miles to get rid of something and all of a sudden you’ve got to drive 70 one-way, it’s a big hassle on a lot of haulers,” Justin Adams, of Quinttown Container Service, told the City Council during a June 26 meeting.
City councilors ultimately agreed to take another look at the proposal and will be discussing changes this week.
Lebanon closed the landfill to construction and demolition, or C&D, waste on May 1. Officials said the decision was meant to extend the life of the nearly 40-acre landfill, which is expected to run out of space in its current configuration in the next eight to nine years.
The Hartford transfer station also stopped accepting C&D waste late last month after losing its contractor who ground up and hauled away the debris. The move further limited where contractors and haulers can turn to in the Upper Valley to dispose of construction debris.
On July 22, the Claremont Planning Board is scheduled to continue review of a proposal by American Recycling on Industrial Boulevard for a waste transfer station that would accept C&D material and transport it out of the region by rail. Residents living in the area as well as some business owners have strongly opposed the plan because of concerns about noise, dust and possible contaminated stormwater runoff.
If Lebanon is going to accept commercial waste again, it wants to ensure that debris takes up less space, officials said last week. That means C&D will either be ground up and used as a cover at the landfill or hauled away. And to institute either plan, landfill employees would no longer accept mixed loads.
“What we’re telling you is if you show up for the first time, we’ll tell you we’re going to take it. But in the future, the next time you come here, you need to separate out the (wastes),” City Manager Shaun Mulholland said during the June 26 meeting. “You don’t have a choice to come in here day after day and come in with mixed loads. We’re not going to tolerate that.”
The pronouncement worried some, who countered that it’s time-consuming and challenging to separate waste in dumpsters and municipal trash.
“I can’t guarantee that I’m not going to have any construction waste,” Canaan Town Administrator Mike Samson, who attended the meeting, said in an interview last week.
Construction and demolition waste isn’t accepted at Canaan’s transfer station, but staffers don’t typically check bags unless they’re particularly large or bulky, he said. That means it’s possible for residents to try and sneak in a spare board or piece of wood left over from a home improvement project.
“I’m comfortable with what we’re doing with monitoring waste, but I can’t guarantee there’s no contaminant,” Samson said.
Samson said the town pays about $70,000 to dispose of its trash in Lebanon. If that’s instead charged as a mixed load, it could increase costs by about $60,000, he said.
A big price increase, or having a load of trash rejected by landfill staff, would force Canaan to look elsewhere for services, Samson said. While losing Canaan’s business might not significantly damage the landfill’s bottom line, it could be painful if other towns choose to follow suit.
Only 40% of solid waste dropped off at the landfill comes from Lebanon, which sees a $600,000 annual profit from operations at the facility.
That money is then deposited in the city’s general fund and used to offset taxes. Officials estimate landfill revenues help reduce the tax rate by 31 cents per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value, which amounts to $77.50 on a home valued at $250,000.
Losing the business of all 21 towns that utilize the landfill could cost $1.4 million, wiping out those tax-easing profits, officials say.
Enfield Town Manager Ryan Aylesworth, who also attended the City Council meeting, said he’s monitoring Lebanon’s landfill discussions.
Enfield contracts with Rutland-based Casella Waste Systems for its trash pickup, but an increase in fees at the Lebanon landfill — where the town’s trash ends up — could trickle down to its bills.
“Our hope is that any eventual changes, as far as tipping fees, won’t be dramatically changed over a short period of time,” Aylesworth said last week.
The Lebanon City Council will continue to discuss its proposed landfill fees at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 10 at City Hall. A public hearing on those changes is scheduled for 7 p.m. on July 24 in the same location.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.