Debate to continue on massive Bourne landfill expansion

Paul Gately

Special to Cape Cod Times

Published Feb. 4, 2022 

BOURNE — A Board of Health hearing on the possible expansion of the disposal facility off MacArthur Boulevard – both vertically and horizontally – has been continued to Feb. 16, when up to seven hours of discussion are expected following a four-hour hearing on Wednesday.

The plans being debated at the Bourne Landfill Site Assignment hearing call for a total added waste volume of 5.175 million cubic yards. The landfill would be expanded on two parcels off Route 28 with no additional daily disposal tonnage, and facility operations would be expanded, maximizing facility usage through 2035.

Environmental groups have objected to the expansion, particularly its possible contamination of Cape Cod’s sole-source aquifer, the possible leaching of PFAS chemicals and its emission of greenhouse gas emissions.

The landfill division and its consultants concluded their presentation Wednesday, and the anti-landfill Conservation Law Foundation is poised to pre-file testimony by next Wednesday for the continued hearing. Testimony must pivot on landfill public health issues, safety matters and environmental issues.

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Board of Health Chairman Stanley Andrews said a second hearing continuation might be necessary beyond Feb. 16, adding members must compile and file a report with state environmental authorities by March 21.

The Cape Cod Commission approved the expansion plans in September as a development of regional impact, leading to the town and state approval process. The two expansion efforts involve 17 acres for horizontal waste disposal to the south of current operations and 74 acres of additional vertical disposal atop the existing landfill.

Ten landfills have closed in Massachusetts in the past decade, and only five remain in the entire state, Edmund Coletta, MassDEP press secretary/public affairs director, told the Times in October. The closure of landfills has shrunk solid waste disposal capacity in Massachusetts, according to MassDEP’s 2030 Solid Waste Master Plan. 

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Bourne has the only active landfill on the Cape, and the expanded facility would take solid waste from Bourne and Falmouth, and accept ash from trash from other towns that is brought to the Covanta SEMASS waste-to-energy facility in Rochester.

The Bourne hearings are held via Zoom, and there is no public participation beyond duly registered participants. The first session was long, dry and formal with diction issues frustrating the recording stenographer. It took all concerned 40 minutes to decide on hearing continuation procedures.

A broad background to Bourne's efforts involves the shrinking landfill space in Massachusetts, said Landfill General Manager Dan Barrett on Wednesday. He said the Bourne facility was the first in the state to opt for double composite liners and that four feet of separation is maintained between groundwater levels and the facility liner.

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The site assignment hearing is a final step for the Board of Health to hear testimony, evaluate data and sentiment, and write a positive report about landfill site suitability, finding the expansion request acceptable for project construction and operations.

Bourne selectmen in 2019 informally supported landfill expansion, saying operations would include efforts to shape or utilize new technology that one day might negate landfilling. There was no formal board vote on the issue.

Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll contributed to this report.

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