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Hartford's North Meadows Landfill Permanently Closes to Waste and Ash Deliveries Today

Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority to Continue Landfill Capping and Maintenance

Northend Agent's

January 07, 2009

Hartford, Conn., - One the Hartford region's most visible landmarks will see the last dump trucks climbing its slopes this afternoon.

CRRA Chairman Michael A. Pace and CRRA President Thomas D. Kirk, City of Hartford Manager Lee Erdmann and Public Works Director Clarence Corbin and State Representative and Deputy Speaker Marie Lopez Kirkley-Bey (D-Hartford) formally commemorated the closing of Hartford’s North Meadows landfill today at noon near its snowy summit.

The 68-year-old landfill, which the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA) has leased from the City of Hartford since 1982 for disposal of municipal solid waste from its 70 Mid-Connecticut Project member towns and ash generated from its Mid-Connecticut waste­to-energy plant, will permanently close to deliveries on December 31.

The landfill closing, initially announced in February 2007, was planned with the City of Hartford and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The closing is in accordance with CRRA's permit with the DEP to cease waste delivery to the site by the end of this year. CRRA is responsible for the landfill's final closure and maintenance, including phased completion of a technologically advanced protective geomembrane cap. The landfill's capping process will continue through 2011. CRRA’s latest information shows those costs will total about $27 million.

Following closure, CRRA will be responsible for 30 years of monitoring and maintenance to ensure the landfill continues to operate safely. Costs for those activities are estimated at a total of $17 million.

Beginning January 1, CRRA's Mid-Connecticut Project will ship ash from its waste-to­energy plant to a privately owned ash landfill in Putnam and waste that can’t be turned into electricity to a privately-owned landfill in Chicopee, Mass. These additional costs for shipping and disposing of ash and waste are expected to total about $70 million through the end of the Project in 2012, so closing the Hartford landfill will cost a total of about $115 million.

Hartford residents, who have been able to drop off their bulky waste at the landfill, may have bulky waste picked up by their current waste hauler or drop it off at the temporary drop-off location at 40 Jennings Road starting on January 26, 2009.

In its quest to continue reducing costs to Mid-Connecticut Project towns, CRRA is seeking to develop a publicly owned ash landfill. In March, CRRA announced it had culminated a three-year search process by selecting a site in Franklin. CRRA chose the site because, based on all available information, it best fit the state’s ash landfill siting criteria. CRRA is continuing its detailed on-site investigation by conducting environmental tests to determine if the Franklin site is suitable for an ash landfill. CRRA expects to complete this study in 2009.

The Hartford landfill's ideal location offers a number of possibilities for use of the site after the capping process has been completed. The site, with its panoramic views of Hartford and the Connecticut River, could be used for passive recreation purposes such as walking trails and wildlife habitats.

The Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority is a quasi-public agency whose mission is to work for – and in – the best interests of the municipalities of the state of Connecticut. CRRA’s board of directors and new management team develop and implement environmentally sound solutions and best practices for solid waste disposal and recycling management on behalf of municipalities. CRRA’s four solid waste projects serve 110 Connecticut cities and towns. CRRA also runs environmental and recycling educational programs through the Trash Museum http://www.crra.org/pages/edu_museums.htm#htfd in Hartford and Garbage Museum http://www.crra.org/pages/edu_museums.htm#strtfd in Stratford. For more information about CRRA and its activities, visit http://www.crra.org. Computer users can also discuss CRRA at its blog, http://crra-blog.blogspot.com.