DEP: Railroad Application ‘Insufficient’

By Andrew Gorosko

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued a “notice of insufficiency” to the Housatonic Railroad Company, thoroughly describing a long list of shortcomings in the railroad’s controversial DEP permit application to expand its solid waste handling operations at its rail terminal at 30 Hawleyville Road (Route 25).

The railroad transfers solid waste from heavy trucks onto railcars for shipment by rail for disposal at out-of-state landfills.

Its pending proposal to expand its waste handling and also increase the types of solid waste that it handles has drawn stiff opposition from town officials and from a citizens group, both of whom charge that a waste-handling expansion would pose environmental hazards in Hawleyville, especially in terms of groundwater quality.

The numerous deficiencies in the railroad’s permit application are listed in an October 8 letter from Diane Duva, the assistant director of the waste engineering and enforcement division of the DEP’s bureau of materials management and compliance assurance, to Colin Pease, the railroad’s vice president for special projects.

The railroad submitted the initial permit application last April. It submitted a revised permit application in late September. The revised application reduces the proposed tonnage of solid waste which would handled daily, as well as modifies the types of solid waste which would be handled at the truck-to-rail waste transfer station.

In the notice, Ms Duva writes that the railroad’s overall permit application lacks much information that is necessary before the DEP would conduct a technical review of the application.

The single-spaced four-page letter lists application deficiencies in the areas of: the completeness and accuracy of the application form; the consistency of the application; business information; the adequacy of technical drawings; an operations and management plan for the facility; compliance with the federal 2008 Clean Railroads Act; the consistency of the executive summary of the application; and the need for a stormwater discharge permit for industrial activity.

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 railroad’s application marks the first time that the DEP has reviewed such a waste handling proposal under the terms of the Clean Railroads Act.

“All information provided in the application and presented in all supporting documents must be consistent; any discrepancies in the application package may be grounds for the rejection of the application,” according to Ms Duva.

“The [DEP] will not process this application further until the issues outlined in this notice of insufficiency have been resolved by the applicant to the satisfaction of the [DEP] commissioner,” she adds.

The notice lists various procedures that the applicant must follow and the deadlines which it must meet to have the DEP resume its review of the application. The document explains that the applicant has the option of having a conference with DEP for clarification and discussion purposes.

According to the document, the railroad would have until late November to provide the requested information to DEP or the application may be rejected for insufficiency, requiring that a new application and related fees be submitted.

 However, if the application problems are resolved in a timely manner, a “notice of sufficiency,” would be issued and the DEP’s technical review would then start.

Mr Pease said October 13 that he expects railroad representatives to meet with DEP officials to ensure that the railroad understands the insufficiency document in order to allow it to provide a comprehensive response to the environmental agency. The DEP is seeking many details about the application, he said.

“They get into every detail,” he said of the DEP’s thoroughness. “It’s part of the process. It’s part of the give-and-take. I think it’s a normal part of the process,” he said.

George Benson, town director of planning and land use, said of the DEP’s notice of insufficiency, “I think the information that the DEP requested is going to be very helpful to evaluate the past and present [waste] operations on the site.”

That information will help the town better understand the railroad’s proposed waste-handling expansion project, he said.

In its insufficiency notice to the railroad, the DEP has addressed the various concerns that have locally been expressed about the waste expansion project, Mr Benson said.

 

Legislative Council

Amid continuing opposition to the railroad’s waste expansion proposal from town officials and from a citizens group, the Legislative Council is now voicing its opposition to the project.

In an October 8 letter to DEP Commissioner Amey Marrella, Legislative Council Chairman William Rodgers writes of the council’s concern over the pending railroad application for expanded waste handling.

Mr Rodgers notes the stated opposition to the waste expansion proposal from the Board of Selectmen, the Planning and Zoning Commission, and the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials.

Council members heard during last spring and last summer “a steady stream of concern about and opposition to this project” from citizens and several town officials, he adds. The subject was the topic of a lengthy council session among council members, citizens, and the railroad’s general counsel, Mr Rodgers writes.

“The council shares the concerns expressed to it by town residents and officials and opposes this permit application…Any efforts on [the DEP’s] part to deny or significantly restrict the permit application would be appreciated,” Mr Rodgers writes.