Riverside Waste Transfer Station News

Updated November 19, 2005

Important Update! Valley Mill has decided to abandon plans to build a waste transfer station on the bank of the Housatonic River and has found a new site for their operation. Success!

Valley Mill filed for an extension of their original Order Of Conditions (an OOC is a permit to do work in an area in which the Conservation Commission has jurisdiction) from the Conservation Commission on their Waste Transfer Station project. The Conservation Commission denied the extension. The OOC expired on September 25, 2005. The Project can not proceed without a valid Order Of Conditions, which it is now unlikely to get for any similar project at this location.

 

Valley Mill filed a Notice Of Intent (an NOI is a notice of the intent to do work in an area in which the Conservation Commission has jurisdiction and is also a request for an OOC) for a parking lot near their existing building. The NOI received an Order Of Conditions from the Pittsfield Conservation Commission. However, the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) appealed Pittsfield's decision because it was not consistent with the previous NOI for the transfer station - specifically the Mean Annual High-Water (MAHW) line was different on the two NOIs. On July 29, 2005 DEPmade a site visit. Valley Mill and the Conservation Commission agreed that the previous MAHW line was a mistake. The comment period is over and we are waiting to hear DEP's decision on where the MAHW actually is located. If the MAHW line is determined to be close to where BEAT believes it is - the entire Waste Transfer Station project will be IN the 100 foot Riverfront Area and require an additional waiver for the Site Suitability Review, which BEAT does not believe would be granted.

 
Valley Mill Corp has filed their Site Suitability Report in early 2004 for the Transfer Station with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. If they publish their legal notice to start the comment period, BEAT will ask everyone to comment on this project.
Pittsfield's Riverside Waste Transfer Station has received A Dirty Dozen Award

Site Suitability Report

Valley Mill Corp.'s Revised Site Suitability Report has been accepted as administratively complete. As soon as Valley Mill places a legal notice in the Pittsfield newspaper the Public Comment Period will begin, and BEAT will ask that everyone comment. At that time you should please send comments to:
 

Daniel Hall
Re: Valley Mill Corp. file #04-236-006
Mass. DEP, Western Region, BWP
436 Dwight St.
Springfield, MA 01103

 

Your comments should refer to Site Suitability Criteria that are required in the

SITE ASSIGNMENT REGULATIONS FOR SOLID WASTE FACILITIES 310 CMR 16.00:    

These include:The transfer station must be 500 feet from the nearest occupied residential dwelling. Valley Mill Corp.'s building is no longer a rectangle, in part because they removed one corner because it WAS within 500 feet of the nearest home. In fact, this very long and narrow parcel runs between the only unpolluted branch of the Housatonic River and a large neighborhood that currently uses the site as a greenway - walking dogs and cross-country skiing. The waste handling area must be outside the Riverfront Area. Valley Mill's waste handling building is within the Riverfront Area. In fact the entire site runs along the river so the diesel trucks will have to drive about 1250 feet along the bank to the weigh station where they will uncover their load for visual inspection within the Riverfront Area, then they will drive the rest of the way along the river to the waste handling building, where they will probably have to wait in line to unload. Any diesel particulate, dust, or litter will end up in the river.