Legal Strategy Session

Planned On Railroad Waste Project

By Andrew Gorosko

Town officials this week were preparing for a meeting with the state attorney general and state environmental officials at which they planned to discuss legal strategy concerning the Housatonic Railroad Company’s controversial, multifaceted proposal to expand its solid waste handling operations at its Hawleyville rail terminal.

Town officials have sought the joint session, which is scheduled for Friday, October 2, at the attorney general’s office in Hartford.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said September 30 that because the session would involve legal strategy, it would be closed to the public.

“If there are violations of law that remain uncorrected or there are repeated violations,” it could result in legal action by the state against the railroad, he said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) last week issued the railroad and some related companies a “notice of violation,” stating that the railroad has violated environmental law on solid waste handling, based on railroad activities in Hawleyville observed by a DEP inspector on September 2.

Mr Blumenthal declined to say whether that DEP violation notice might prompt state legal action against the railroad.

The attorney general said he would attend the October 2 session to learn the town’s concerns about the railroad’s proposed waste-handling expansion. Town officials have said their major concern over the project involves possible environmental damage caused by expanded waste handling.

Mr Blumenthal said, “We will take every measure vigorously and vigilantly to protect environmental concerns and the public interest.”

George Benson, the town’s director of planning and land use, said that he and three other town officials planned to attend the legal strategy session. The others are First Selectman Joe Borst, Town Attorney David Grogins, and Deputy Director of Planning and Land Use Rob Sibley.

Mr Benson said he expects the discussion to include how the town, the DEP, and the attorney general’s office would interact with each another during the DEP’s ongoing review of the railroad’s permit application to expand waste handling.

The railroad has a pending DEP application to increase its solid waste handling from 450 tons daily to 2,000 tons daily, and also to increase the range of solid waste it handles. The railroad transfers solid waste from heavy trucks onto railcars for shipment by rail for disposal at out-of-state landfills.

Until now, the solid waste shipped out by rail has largely been construction/demolition debris. In the permit application under review by the DEP, the railroad seeks to also handle contaminated soils, used casting sand, coal fly ash, dredge spoils, ash from resource recovery plants, sludge ash, treated woods, and scrap tires in the form of crumbed tires, shredded tires, and whole tires. The railroad’s DEP permit application indicates that it wants permission to operate the waste transfer station seven days a week, 24 hours a day. A DEP public hearing on the permit application is expected sometime in 2010.

When Congress approved the Clean Railroads Act of 2008, it required that the health and safety aspects of solid waste handling by railroads be subject to regulation by the state DEP. Previously, railroads had been subject only to federal regulation.

The DEP’s September 21 violation notice against the railroad was the first enforcement action against any railroad in the state under the terms of the 2008 Clean Railroads Act. That notice states that the railroad had built or established an unauthorized solid waste transfer station without first having submitted a plan, design, and collection method for such a facility for DEP review and approval.

Mr Benson said this week that the expanded waste-handling facility proposed by the railroad is unnecessary. A regional railroad-based solid waste transfer station already exists on White Street in Danbury and it is well suited for such activity, he said.

Mr Benson characterized the railroad’s waste expansion proposal for Hawleyville as “a potentially hazardous activity that’s not wanted or needed.”

“The big issue is that we really don’t need it…We don’t think this is the right place for this…You’re building something with potential environmental problems…It isn’t needed,” Mr Benson said.

Besides the town government, the railroad waste expansion proposal has drawn opposition from an ad hoc citizens group known as Hawleyville Environmental Advocacy Team (HEAT).

The railroad has assured the town and others that it seeks to protect the environment, including wetlands, near the site of its proposed waste-handling expansion. The town Inland Wetlands Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing October 14 on the wetlands protection aspects of the railroad’s waste expansion proposal.