What do Giannino's bills on solid waste facilities/landfills aim to achieve?
A House committee heard testimony on three bills state Rep. Jessica Giannino filed that seek to prevent expansion of landfills near or in Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, to ensure the timely closure of the WIN Waste Innovations (formerly Wheelabrator) ash landfill, and to give boards of health from abutting communities decision-making power over the siting and expansion of solid waste facilities. Giannino, a Democrat who represents Revere, Chelsea and Precincts 3 and 10 in Saugus, is sponsoring House Bills 930, 931 and 932. The Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture convened June 22 to listen to oral and written testimony regarding the three articles. House Bill 930 reads as follows, Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, no new landfill, monofill, or ash landfill shall be established in or adjacent to an area designated by the Commonwealth as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern pursuant to MGL c21A s2 (7). Further, no existing landfill, monofill, or ash landfill located in or adjacent to an Area of Critical Environmental Concern shall be expanded by increase in footprint, vertical height, or capacity for disposal. The WIN Waste Innovations ash landfill in Saugus is located within the Rumney Marsh Area of Critical Environmental Concern. WIN Waste Innovations Vice President of Environmental, Health & Safety Jim Connolly has publicly stated the company would like to continue using the adjacent landfill to dispose of the ash remnants that come out of the trash-to-energy plant once there is no more capacity to take on more ash. Giannino explained that House Bill 930 would mandate that no new landfill, monofill, or ash landfill be built in or adjacent to areas of critical environmental concern, and requires that no existing landfill, monofill, or ash landfill located in or adjacent to an Area of Critical Environmental Concern be allowed to be expanded by increase in footprint, vertical height, or capacity for disposal. Any expansion of a landfill that is in or adjacent to an Area of Critical Environmental Concern flies in the face of efforts to protect the Commonwealths natural environmental assets for future generations, she said. As such, we should codify into the general laws a policy which would prevent expansion of landfills in Areas of Critical Environmental Concern to ensure that these environmental treasures are preserved for generations to come.  House Bill 931  House Bill 931 aims to authorize the board of health in any community that lies within a half mile of a solid waste facility to adopt reasonable rules and regulations to protect the public health from unnecessary or excessive noise; frequent and unwarranted smoke; and obnoxious odors.  If approved, the regulation would empower such boards of health to issue reasonable orders, citations and civil penalties for any violation relating to controlling such noise, smoke or obnoxious orders. Giannino said more than 150,000 people live within three miles of the WIN Waste Innovations solid waste facility, but only those in the Town of Saugus have a say in its operation. Though the trash incinerator and landfill are physically located in Saugus, my constituents in Revere tend to be just as impacted, if not more impacted, by the facilitys operations because of its extreme close proximity to Revere, Giannino said. The facility is directly across the Pines River from the City of Revere, less than a half mile from thousands of my constituents in the Riverside neighborhood. Beyond Riverside, residents of the Point of Pines neighborhood at the mouth of the Pines River, as well as people who live across the marsh in the Revere Street neighborhood, also feel the impacts of the facilitys operations. Giannino spelled out that over six weeks during the summer of 2019, her constituents in Saugus and Revere endured ungodly noises coming from WIN Waste Innovations 24/7, yet Revere officials couldnt cite the company for exceeding acceptable decibel levels, even when they kept residents awake all hours of the night for weeks on end. What my neighbors and friends have had to endure is unacceptable by any reasonable persons standards, Giannino said. It should be noted that since November 2016 my constituents in Revere and Saugus who live in the shadow of the Wheelabrator have had to endure these types of noise occurrences at all hours of the day and night no less than nine times due to issues at the plant, again demonstrating that perhaps this facility is outdated for the 21st century.  Passage of House Bill 931 would give municipalities such as Revere the opportunity to weigh in on matters that directly impact residents and to cite facilities for issues such as noise and fire prevention violations, Giannino said. House Bill 932  House Bill 932 reads, Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the facility known as the Wheelabrator Saugus ash landfill or Saugus ash monofill, 100 Salem Turnpike, Saugus, Massachusetts, 01906, (Ash Landfill) shall cease all operations and begin installing a final, permanent cap at the earliest of the following: 1. December 31, 2024; or 2. Should the final two of the five drainage valleys (valleys one and two) of the ash landfill as described in the Environmental Notification Form Saugus ash monofill, submitted by Wheelabrator Saugus to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office and dated May, 2016, (the ENF) be filled to a 2% valley slope as described in the ENF. The area proposed to be filled comprises 39 acres and 400,000 cubic yards of airspace according to the ENF; or 3. Should Wheelabrator Saugus dispose of 450,000 tons of ash or other material at the Ash Landfill beginning January 1, 2021.  In her testimony to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, Giannino pointed out the WIN Waste Innovations landfill was originally supposed to cease operation in December 1996, but the state and town have allowed the company to keep extending the life of the landfill. At this juncture in time, we should be discussing closure and remediation plans, yet the company is already expressing interest in using the site for the dumping of ash indefinitely, Giannino said. Therefore, I hope the committee will give this bill a favorable report so that it may advance through the legislative process. It is time to require Wheelabrator to begin closure of this landfill, and plan for remediation to safeguard what is already there.  Selectman Debra Panetta submitted written testimony in support of all three bills that address the WIN Waste Innovations site. Saugus, Revere, Lynn, and our surrounding communities deserve clean water, clean air, and an overall clean environment, Panetta wrote. I am very concerned about the health and well-being of the residents that live in and around this facility.  Wheelabrator response  WIN Waste Innovations Senior Environmental Manager Matthew Hughes urged the Joint Committee to oppose all three bills. Regarding proposed HB 930 which prohibits a landfill or an expansion of a landfill in an area of critical environmental concern or ACEC, the Saugus landfill and facility were fully permitted and operating when the ACEC was established in 1989, Hughes said. WIN Waste Innovations subsequently constructed the environmental controls that isolated approximately 150 acres of previously placed waste, trash placed from 1950 through 1975, from the environment as well as isolating the ash from ongoing operations by installing an approximately two-mile long barrier wall and groundwater protection system around the landfill. We then developed the 340-acre Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, the largest and most successful habitat restoration and preservation project in the history of the ACEC.  Hughes asserted that the proposed bills are unnecessary and detrimental to the Commonwealth because there is already a robust system of regulating and evaluating the environmental impact of critical infrastructure projects, including waste management facilities such as the Saugus facility and the ash landfill. Because our current and future activities are regulated under the strict oversight of federal, state and local environmental agencies vested with the responsibility of protecting public health and the environment, there is no need for the legislature to provide any additional oversight or controls over the operations of the Saugus facility and landfill, Hughes said. The Committee should allow the agencies entrusted with administering those laws and regulations to do so and not adopt legislation specifically directed against one facility without the benefit of any sound engineering and scientific data.  Michelle Nadeau, director of communications and community engagement for WIN Waste Innovations, offered the following statement: We are a critical part of the states environmental and energy infrastructure. Our waste-to-energy system safely disposes of solid waste from homes and businesses, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and generates clean, renewable energy. Waste-to-energy is preferred by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the use of landfills. Waste-to-energy is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world and our Saugus facility is in compliance with all federal, state and local standards, rules and regulations that protect public health and the environment. We look forward to continuing to work with the state to address the growing challenge of safely disposing of solid waste.  Richard Serino, a legislative aide in Gianninos office, told the Advertiser its hard to tell when the bills might emerge from the committee. Serino said the committee has a hard deadline to report the bills out in early 2022, but noted the bills could be released earlier than that.