Latest Update: The State is NOT lifting the Incinerator Moratorium as part of their 2010 Solid Waste Management Plan!
BIG VICTORY FOR RATS AND THE TRI-TOWN COMMUNITY AREA!
The State is NOT lifting the Incinerator Moratorium as part of their 2010 Solid Waste Management Plan! This will STOP Casella from building an incinerator next to the Southbridge Landfill!
Earlier today, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs announced that they will be retaining the incinerator moratorium. Instead of allowing new incinerators to to be built to burn our waste, they are supporting Zero Waste programs like the expanded Bottle Bill, the E-Waste bill, expanded recycling programs and the closing of problem landfills.
What does this mean for our region? Casella Waste Systems, along with Covanta and Waste Management have been lobbying hard for the DEP to support "waste-to-energy" - greenwashed incinerators that would burn construction & demolition and municipal solid waste streams. These facilities are proven to waste resources that should be reused or recycled, generate much less energy than recycling saves, are very polluting and very expensive to build.
Casella planned to build a waste-to-energy incinerator (which they called a "gasification facility") adjacent to the Southbridge Landfill. The Southbridge Town Council had already agreed to cooperate in this endeavor via the Town's 2007 Extension Contract with Casella. Now, state policy will prohibit Casella from building a gasification incinerator.
We are so excited and proud of the role RATS took in this endeavor. RATS is one of the founding members of DON"T WASTE MASSACHUSETTS. DWM is a coalition of more than thirty-five organizations in Massachusetts including Masspirg, Sierra Club Massachusetts, Toxics Actions Center, and Clean Water Action. DWM was formed in response to the threat of the incinerator moratorium being lifted. DWM's mission is to promote zero waste.
Not only did RATS provide essential manpower and grassroots support to DWM, but we also were able to represent an environmental justice community threatened by the largest landfill in the state AND a new incinerator. This lent an important immediacy to many of the meetings attended by DWM.
Over the last year and a half, members of RATS have met with the Commissioner of the DEP, the Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and state senators and representatives from all over the state. We have also attended state-wide and national conferences and DEP stakeholder meetings and workgroups, testified at state legislative hearings, collected over a thousand anti-incinerator petition signatures, letters to the DEP and Governor Patrick.
RATS learned a lot from the other DWM supporters, without whom this effort would never have been successful. RATS will continue to work closely with DWM. There is much work left to be done. If zero waste policies are not adopted and enforced, Massachusetts, and Southbridge, will be facing this threat over and over again in the years to come.
Kirstie Pecci
Members:
Sustainnovation Consulting
Sustainnovation Consulting
Arborway Coalition
Health Care Without Harm
Westport River Watershed Alliance
Green On the Inside, LLC
GreenCAPE
GreenCAPE
Acton Citizens for Environmental Safety
Acton Citizens for Environmental Safety
ACE
ACE
Boston Climate Action Network
Boston Climate Action Network
Carlisle Climate Action
Clean Water Action
Concerned Citizens of Russell
East Quabbin Alliance
Environment Massachusetts
Green Acton
Green Decade Coalition
Haverhill Environmental League
Healthlink
Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies
Immigrant Service Providers/Group Health
Lawrence Environmental Action Group, Inc.
MA Sierra Club
MA Sierra Club / Clean Water Action
Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition
Massachusetts Coalition for Clean Air
Massachusetts Coalition for Clean Air
Massachusetts Environmental Energy Alliance
MASSPIRG
People of Ayer Concerned About the Environment
Pioneer Valley Preservation Coalition
Residents for Alternative Trash Solutions (RATS)
Salem Alliance for the Environment
Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment
Urban Ecology Institute
Toxics Action Center
Toxics Action Center
