Where Are the Watchdogs?

On Thursday, March 13th, Vermont Public hosted underwriter John Casella on Vermont Edition to talk about the February 24th spill of nearly 9,000 gallons of toxic landfill leachate on Casella’s NEWSVT Coventry landfill. 

Mr. Casella represented the spill as “a risk” associated with innovation, one that we should just accept as a fact of life as the NEWSVT takes on the experimental treatment of leachate to filter for harmful leachate PFAS contaminants.

There is no question how dangerous PFAS chemicals are to environmental and human health, and why it is so essential to figure out how to safely filter PFAS from leachate. The approach NEWSVT is taking, at the direction of the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR), to filter leachate- may be innovative, but it is not inherently “risky”. 

The accidental spill on Feb 24th of toxic landfill leachate, due to a system malfunction that occurred when no staff were required to be on duty, was a “risk” that was completely predictable, preventable and should never have happened. Would a maple sugar-maker leave the sugar house untended- arch fires blazing- and then blame it on an unavoidable “risk” when the sugar- house burned to the ground? Would any rational person accept that excuse?

At last December ‘s public hearing on the NEWSVT PFAS treatment permit (the permit which has still not been issued for the experimental treatment pilot), DUMP commenters objected to the fact that the plan called for 24/7 operation but was only staffed eight hours a day Monday through Friday and up to two hours on the weekend. In other words, the system ran 100% of the time but was staffed 25% of the time.

That’s the same inadequate staffing pattern that was in place at a Casella landfill in Bethlehem NH a few years ago when that leachate system failed, on a weekend, when no one was onsite, resulting in a disastrous accidental leachate spill! Where are the watchdogs?

If the ANR or any of its divisions had required a NEWSVT employee to be on duty 24/7 on February 24th, the system would have been shut down immediately and near disaster prevented. But that didn’t happen, and the rest is history. An investigation may determine what time that “fail safe” system actually malfunctioned, or how many gallons actually escaped containment. It could have been at any hour between 4 or 5 pm on Friday evening and 7 am Saturday morning. And the outcome could have been much worse. Hopefully, we dodged a bullet this time. There can’t be a next time.

Vermont ANR’s goal to be first in the nation in leachate treatment is admirable, but only if the most effective technology available is used in the safest possible way to protect the health and safety of public and the environment. The current plan falls far short of the more effective and safer leachate treatment technology model that now is available and is not being employed.

When the permit for the experimental leachate treatment pilot is finally issued by the DEC, it must include a requirement that the treatment system be fully staffed during the hours of operation After all, the definition of insanity is making the same mistakes over and over, expecting different results. If Mr. Casella’s NEWSVT and the ANR can’t learn from history, are we Vermonters doomed to repeat it?

Recommendations for revision of the treatment plan, must also be required. that would make the system safer and more effective, these recommendations were made last June in a review by experts contracted and endorsed by DEC, funded by taxpayers, and turned down by NEWSVT last October. Cutting corners, cutting costs, Ignoring the science, are unacceptable when dealing with highly toxic PFAS chemicals. These forever chemicals must be captured, contained and destroyed to prevent them from ever entering the environment again. The current plan does not ensure that.

David Burns, lead scientist for the SAFF research and development team is quoted, “Of course, there is no suggestion that the treated landfill leachate should be used directly as potable water or allowed to discharge or otherwise migrate into receiving waters reserved for drinking water.” No one in any division in the ANR or NEWSVT is qualified to contradict or override that science.

For that reason, when the permit for the pilot project is issued, it must require the pilot treatment facility be sited out of the fragile Memphremagog watershed, in a hydro-geologically safe area near to the receiving WWTF in Montpelier. Lake Memphremagog is an international lake, a drinking water reservoir for 175,000 Quebec neighbors. There is a currently a moratorium on treatment or disposal of leachate anywhere in the Memphremagog watershed for that reason. The experimental treatment project is ongoing in spite of that.

It’s ANR’s responsibility to protect the health and safety of the environment and the public on both sides of the border. That starts with updating Vermont’s solid waste policy and management standards, and enforcing them, to avoid making the same mistakes in the future as have been made in the past.

Peggy Stevens

Vice-Chair, Don’t Undermine Memphremagog’s Purity (DUMP)