While few people in town remember the days when trash was unceremoniously tossed directly into a landfill behind the Transfer Station, current residents will likely soon be paying the piper for that practice.
The town landfill, located on the hill behind the trash compactors, closed in 1984 after the Transfer Station was built. At that time, the state did not mandate capping landfills or monitoring the area’s groundwater for contaminants that might slowly leach out of the trash. But that has since changed. The Department of Environmental Protection has a list of “unclosed” landfills, including Harvard’s, and according to Town Administrator Tim Bragan, the DEP will begin letting towns know what they will need to do with their unclosed landfills over the next few months.
Bragan told the Select Board at its Jan. 3 meeting that officially closing the town landfill will likely be just a matter of paperwork. The part that will cost money, he said, is drilling monitoring wells to test the groundwater around the 4-acre site, and possibly testing the air for emissions. The town is working with engineering firm Tighe and Bond to determine exactly what needs to be done, for how long, and at what cost.
Bragan said the state’s current procedure for closing landfills requires groundwater to be monitored for contaminants for 35 years, but Tighe and Bond engineers told him the state has never made any town monitor a landfill for that long. It’s been nearly 39 years since the site was operational, so it’s unclear how long the town might need to monitor. He added that the town is looking into what funding might be available to help with this situation. Many other nearby towns are also on the DEP’s unclosed landfill list, including Groton, Shirley, Bolton, Littleton, and Stow.
Saving money in 1984
Back in the spring of 1984 when the Transfer Station that would replace the landfill was being designed, members of the Solid Waste Disposal Committee discussed how to close the landfill. According to the Press’ predecessor, the Harvard Post, member Bill Hokanson said the landfill should be covered with some material such as clay “to prevent water from leaching through the fill and contaminating the water table.” But, he said, it was unclear where the town would get the funds to do that. Higher than expected trash compactor prices and hauling bids forced the town to ask for more money at a Special Town Meeting during the summer, and when the Transfer Station opened in September, the landfill was covered with ordinary soil.
Two years later, the Groundwater Study Committee tested the water at the Department of Public Works, whose well was very close to the old landfill, looking for contaminants such as herbicides, hydrocarbons, and pesticides. The Press was not able to find the results of that test, but it was clear that there was concern for the quality of the groundwater near the landfill. In December 1986, the town’s water commissioners were looking for a site to drill a backup well for the town water supply. A well had recently been drilled on the Ryan Land next to the DPW, but Water Commissioner David Swain said the commission didn’t want to “touch that well with a 10-foot pole” because it was too close to the old landfill.
Later that same year, John MacGovern, Harvard’s state representative at the time, attended a Board of Selectmen meeting and told the board capping landfills was “close to an emergency” issue. He said it was especially important for towns whose landfills might lie on aquifers, and Harvard might be one of those towns. Board of Selectmen member Mac Henry told MacGovern that small towns like Harvard lacked the technical expertise to solve “complicated environmental problems” such as landfill capping.
Bob Lerner, who was a member of the Planning Board that year, went on record in the Harvard Post to say that he didn’t think the landfill needed to be capped. He said the town covered each day’s collection with a large layer of soil, and there was very little nonresidential trash in the landfill. He maintained that the landfill was, in effect, capped, although “not according to the specifications.” The estimated cost in 1986 to cap the landfill with a 2-foot layer of clay was about $35,000 an acre, or $140,000.
State issues closure mandates
In 1990, the state’s Solid Waste Master Plan included landfill closure mandates for capping and groundwater and air monitoring, and a year later, the state issued a landfill assessment and closure guidance manual to help municipalities through the process. By then, Harvard’s landfill had been inactive for six years, and like the landfill itself, the topic lay dormant until now.
The DPW has been using the old landfill acres to store its jersey barriers and its loam, wood chip, and street sweeping piles. Refrigerators and air conditioners are also kept in a heap near the entrance. DPW Director Tim Kilhart told the Press when the freon is removed from those appliances, they are moved to the metal pile. He said he doesn’t plan to move anything from the old landfill until the DEP tells the town what it needs to do.
Bragan told the Press he and Tighe and Bond have met with DEP representatives and talks are in the early stages. He plans to update the Select Board at its Feb. 7 meeting.
