Latest news with #NHDES
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Casella subsidiary sues NH over Dalton landfill permit denial
A company looking to build a new landfill on a controversial site in the North Country town of Dalton is suing state environmental officials, claiming a rule used to deny its permit application 'violates the constitutional separation of powers by usurping legislative authority.' Granite State Landfill LLC, a subsidiary of Rutland, Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems, filed a complaint Tuesday in Merrimack Superior Court against the state Department of Environmental Services (DES). Granite State Landfill (GSL) had filed an application with DES to open a proposed 70-acre lined landfill that would replace Casella's North Country Environmental Services (NCES) Landfill in Bethlehem, which is scheduled to stop accepting waste in 2028. Casella appealed the state Waste Management Council's decision to reject a previous landfill permit request to the state Supreme Court. The site of the Dalton landfill would be less than half a mile from Forest Lake State Park, sparking attempts over the past three years to convince the Legislature to impose more restrictions on siting landfills in the state. The Legislature created a study group to examine the issue and make recommendations. DES ruled GSL's application is considered 'dormant,' and denied the request according to its rules. In a complaint filed Tuesday, GSL argues state law specifies the grounds on which DES may deny an application. 'Dormancy is not one of those grounds,' the complaint read. 'GSL submitted its application in October of 2023 and has made ten substantial submissions to NHDES since then to supplement the application, the last of which was provided on February 27, 2025. Most of GSL's submissions were in response to additional information sought by NHDES in letters finding the application 'incomplete.' 'In no way could GSL's application be considered 'dormant' within the ordinary meaning of that word,' the complaint argued. While GSL says it plans to appeal the decision to the New Hampshire Waste Management Council, it says because the administrative rule on which NHDES based its decision violates the constitutional separation of powers by 'usurping legislative authority,' GSL is asking the court to declare the rule void. Jim Martin, public information officer for NHDES, said the department 'cannot comment about ongoing litigation.' Jeff Weld, vice president of communications for Casella, said that if additional capacity is not permitted, 'New Hampshire residents and businesses throughout the state will likely incur additional disposal costs due to increased transportation charges and decreased competition in the marketplace.' 'It is unfortunate that despite providing thousands of pages of documents over the course of two years and nearly a dozen separate supplemental submissions in response to requests from NHDES, that they chose to deny the permit application based on dormancy,' Weld wrote in an email. 'The ongoing submissions, conversations, and work being conducted in support of the permit application supports our claim in the petition that there is no way for the application to be considered 'dormant' within any ordinary meaning of that word. We are confident that our petition for declaratory judgment will be successful, and the development of the Granite State Landfill will remain on track.' Weld said the need for disposal capacity to serve more than 60,000 customers and nearly 200 New Hampshire towns once NCES ceases operations in Bethlehem 'is made clear by NHDES' in its biennial report. The Dalton landfill proposal is facing renewed political opposition. In her inaugural address in January, Gov. Kelly Ayotte addressed the topic, saying the 'greatest resource our state has besides its people is our beautiful landscape.' 'No other state boasts the natural beauty we do, and there is a lot that comes along with that, from recreation to tourism, to industry as well,' Ayotte said. 'There will be no landfill at Forest Lake in Dalton. We will not allow that beautiful area of our state to become a dumping ground for out-of-state trash. Not gonna happen.' Asked about DES's denial of the permit application, Ayotte said they "did their work and they denied the permit on the Dalton landfill that is in the court process and I expect that will be followed.' 'Of course, I have confidence that they did their work properly but that will be defended by the attorney general's office.' In denying the permit application last week, DES officials said a permit application becomes dormant when the applicant fails to submit required information requested within a year of first being notified an application is incomplete — which came and went in February for GSL's application. In a letter, Michael Wimsatt, director of DES' waste management division, wrote a dormant incomplete application is 'deemed denied without further action by the department.' In its complaint, GSL claims it 'provided all the necessary information to complete the application by February 27, 2025, at the latest.'
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Yahoo
NY man, mustard company plead guilty to polluting Souhegan River
Feb. 24—A New York man and a mustard and vinegar manufacturing company have pleaded guilty in federal court to discharging acidic water into the Souhegan River, federal officials said Monday. Charles Santich, 59, of New York, and Old Dutch Mustard Co., Inc., doing business as Pilgrim Foods, Inc. ("Old Dutch Mustard") pleaded guilty to knowingly discharging a pollutant without a permit, Acting U.S. Attorney Jay McCormack and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gufstafson of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division said. U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty scheduled sentencing for June 23. The Clean Water Act (CWA) prohibits the discharge of any pollutant into navigable waters of the United States without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Federal prosecutors said Old Dutch Mustard has been subject to several enforcement actions by the EPA, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) and the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office due to a long history of CWA non-compliance dating back to the 1980s. As a result of these actions, EPA and NHDES have required continuous monitoring of an unnamed brook that flows underneath and in front of the facility, eventually flowing into the Souhegan River — one of 19 rivers in the state designated as an important natural resource. Charles Santich is the president and owner of Old Dutch Mustard, a New York corporation with a manufacturing facility in Greenville. The company manufactures vinegar and mustard products, which generate acidic wastewater. In addition, stormwater flows through the property, including an outdoor area where the company stores their product in large tanks. Both the wastewater and stormwater at Old Dutch Mustard becomes acidic and is categorized as a pollutant under the CWA, and prosecutors say Old Dutch Mustard did not have the necessary permit to discharge the acidic wastewater or stormwater into the environment. "Instead, Old Dutch was required to store the polluted water in tanks and pay a trucking company to haul all the wastewater off-site to a publicly owned treatment plant," federal prosecutors said in a statement. "Beginning in the spring of 2015, Santich hired an excavation company to bury a pipe from the Old Dutch Mustard facility to discharge the acidic wastewater and stormwater in the general direction of the Souhegan River along an abandoned railroad bed. "This discharge point was downstream of, and not detectible by, the continuous environmental monitoring required by the EPA and state of New Hampshire."
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A big step forward in New Hampshire's efforts to reduce food waste
Food waste makes up about a quarter of the general trash that New Hampshire businesses and homes produce. (Photo by Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline) Next month, New Hampshire launches a new law to cut food waste, and in the process eventually save landfill space and reduce the methane gas emissions that drive climate change. Other potential upsides of the Feb. 1 start for the food waste law? New sources of healthy food for pantries and shelters, fertilizer for farms, and jobs transporting, processing, and marketing the food that once just got trucked and dumped. Under the new law, similar to those in neighboring states, facilities that create more than a ton of food waste a week will redirect that waste from landfills and incinerators to alternative management facilities that either recover edible food to feed people and animals, or use composting or anaerobic digestion to process wasted food into useable byproducts. Hospitals, colleges, restaurants, correctional facilities, stadiums, convention centers, large hotels, and big-box grocery stores are all likely contributors on the ton-a-week-plus side, but no producer of food waste will be required to transport that waste unless a management facility with adequate capacity is within 20 miles. The law came out of the state's Solid Waste Working Group headed by Rep. Karen Ebel, a New London Democrat, as a key part of the state goal to reduce disposal of solid waste tonnage by 25% by 2030 and 45% by 2050. New Hampshire's Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) is now seeking proposals for a consultant, to be hired with the approval of the governor and Executive Council, to help determine who exactly is affected by the new law, and begin working out logistics for education, transportation, and diversion. Even a small dent in the amount of food waste dumped in landfills makes a big difference: Food waste makes up about a quarter of the general trash that New Hampshire businesses and homes produce. In 2023, New Hampshire dumped roughly 171,785 tons of food waste, according to estimates from Michael Nork of the NHDES Solid Waste Management Bureau. In Vermont, a similar law has decreased food waste in landfills by 13%. In Massachusetts, with the most successful program in the country, one study indicated a 13.2% reduction in all landfill waste because of the law, and a 25% reduction in methane emissions. 'As New Hampshire develops a network of food waste management facilities within easy reach of the larger producers, we hope not only that landfill space will be saved and methane emissions will be reduced, but that the cost of transporting food waste from producers to management facilities will drop, saving businesses money,' said Nork of NHDES. New England's largest grocery store chain is already operating an effective food waste diversion program across all six states. Hannaford no longer takes any food waste from its 183 stores to a landfill – decreasing landfill disposal by 65 million pounds in 2020 alone. One boost to help food waste generators and management facilities divert food waste from landfill disposal is a $500,000 grant program appropriated by the New Hampshire Legislature. Grant funds will help with implementation of the law by providing financial assistance to increase infrastructure capacity for those who want to explore transportation operations or create or expand composting and digester sites. Jennifer Mitchell of NHDES, who is managing the implementation and operation of the new law, said money from that grant could be available to help manage food waste by deferring costs associated with compliance of the ban. For example, potential use of the funds could go toward the purchase of a new truck for a food bank that wants to increase mobile food distribution capacity. NHDES will need to develop rules to establish this new grant program, and intends to hold listening sessions over the coming year to help inform that process. As composting sites and digesters ramp up, and food pantry transportation replaces landfill dumping of good food, food waste producers should see not only a dramatically better outcome for their leftovers, but the potential reduction in costs from the current $100 a ton they pay to simply 'waste' food that has far better uses. To her great credit, Gov. Kelly Ayotte has made clear her strong opposition to a proposed new mega-landfill in New Hampshire's North Country. This is great news for finally getting New Hampshire off the never-ending treadmill of landfill expansions. The launch of New Hampshire's new food-waste law will play an essential role in pivoting the Granite State away from its historic focus on waste disposal to a new, more sustainable focus on waste reduction. Our communities, environment, and economy will all benefit.
