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NEW BEDFORD – Nearly 300 residents gathered Tuesday night for the final in-person Board of Health hearing on a proposed waste transfer station in the city’s North End with most opposing the project over concerns about health and environmental impact.
The fourth and by far the highest-attended hearing at the Casimir Pulaski Elementary School revolved around South Coast Renewables’ traffic mitigation plan as well as some discussions on wildlife impacts and fire safety.
The waste transfer station, proposed by Parallel Products doing business as South Coast Renewables, would handle an estimated 1,500 tons of solid waste per day from across the region — most of it transferred in and out of the facility by trucks and rail.
Opponents of the project, including many residents living within a half-mile of the proposed site, have said they don’t trust South Coast Renewables to adequately mitigate odors, noise pollution, increased traffic and other hazards and nuisances associated with a waste transfer station. Others worry that a waste facility in the neighborhood would tank property values.
Parallel Products, meanwhile, says that the facility would create 75 jobs and earn the city roughly $800,000 in annual fees in its first year of operation, plus $200,000 in new tax revenue.
In Tuesday’s presentation to the Board of Health, traffic operations engineer and South Coast Renewables witness Philip Viveiros said that the station could expect to see a daily maximum of 368 one-way truck trips per day, or anywhere between 43 and 18 truck trips per hour during peak hours.
To ease congestion in the already high-traffic neighborhood, Viveiros recommended that the city install a traffic signal at the intersection of Braley Road, Phillips Road and Theodore Rice Boulevard. Viveiros said South Coast Renewables would pay for the signal’s design and construction.
Viveiros also recommended that the city apply for a heavy commercial vehicle exclusion with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to limit the number of large trucks that can use Phillips Road as a throughway. For that, South Coast Renewables offered up to $5,000 to commission a study on the exclusion. If the city did not apply for an exclusion, South Coast Renewables would look into limiting non-essential trucks on the road, Viveiros said.
Viveiros could not share exactly how South Coast Renewables planned to effectively prevent trucks from driving down Phillips Road, but confirmed that this system would mean that South Coast Renewables would be monitoring its own operations. Board of Health attorney Adam Brodsky also questioned the company’s ability to monitor third-party vendors that could frequent the site.
“Does this self monitoring work?” board member Alex Weiner asked.
“It works,” Viveiros said. “I can tell you that that is what we have been told, that they will commit to it. I can’t rely on any other data for that.”
Over the course of the night, attendees broke out into cheers, heckles and groans, the majority in dissent of the proposed project. At one point, hearing moderator Arthur Kreiger threatened to expel several attendees for repeated disruption.
In her closing arguments, hearing participant Wendy Morrill implored the Board of Health to deny the project. Citing New Bedford’s status as an environmental justice community with more stringent regulations around community engagement, Morrill also called out South Coast Renewables for what she saw as a lack of respect and transparency during the planning process.
“This community has been living fearfully in the shadow of this facility’s looming threat for six years, and at every public meeting held, while people expressed their deepest fears about the terrifying risks and dangers inherent to this type of business, the project proponents not only smiled the whole time, but often laughed in the faces as they spoke,” Morrill said.
The public comment portion of the hearings took place on Aug. 7, when 24 residents, many of them sitting City Council members, spoke out against the project.
Ward 1 Councilor Leo Choquette, who represents the area of the proposed site, remained concerned about South Coast Renewables’ ability to prevent fires, rodent infestations, and other health and safety hazards. The proposed waste transfer facility would sit within a half-mile of a residential neighborhood and within one mile of protected swampland.
“I’m willing to live with the consequences if we’re wrong, but are you willing to live with the consequences if we’re right?” Choquette told the board during public comment.
In Tuesday’s hearing, environmental consultant Garrett Tunison, one of South Coast Renewables’ expert witnesses, testified that the facility would not pose a risk to wildlife in the area.
Plans for a waste transfer station at 100 Duchaine Blvd. have been in the works since 2019, when Parallel Products first proposed that the site accept biosolid waste from sewage. In 2022, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell negotiated a community host agreement between the company and the city to remove biosolids from the proposal, a deal a Mitchell spokesperson called making “the best of this difficult situation.”
“From the outset, Mayor Mitchell has made it clear that adding another municipal waste facility in the Business Park is not in the City’s best interest. At the same time, the City’s outside legal experts predicted – correctly in retrospect – that the state would inevitably approve the facility,” said public information officer Jonathan Darling. “The City made the best of this difficult situation by agreeing not to oppose the project in exchange for the company removing a biosolids facility from its proposal, paying significant tipping fees to the City that would support infrastructure projects in Ward One, and a guarantee that the City would receive the lowest available price for disposing its trash at the facility.”
While Mitchell has not publicly opposed the waste transfer station, his colleagues on the City Council recently went so far as to write a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to stop the proposal.
“We know that once you and your administration look at this incredibly obnoxious proposal, you will no doubt concur that this does not fit the Trump Administration’s goal to Make America Great Again,” the letter, signed by Councilors Brian Gomes and Linda Morad, read.
The city’s Board of Health will further deliberate in two Zoom meetings open to the public on Sept. 8 and Sept. 16, after which the board will release its decision. September’s Board of Health discussions will not have any opportunity for public comment.
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
The Board of Health Members took an oath to serve and protect the residents of New Bedford. With all the concerns brought forward that will affect the quality of life (Traffic, Emergency Response, Health, Wildlife, and Environmental Pollution (Noise, Air Quality, Ground, and Water Pollution), it is very hard to even think that this project could move forward, but if it does, it’s real clear every Member of the Board of Health should step down and John Mitchell should be voted out of office in the next election.
Jeff Rogers you are 100% right! To try to bring this health hazard into a residential neighborhood is ridiculous.
I have been watching this all with such amazement. I will state at the top that I don’t live in the North End and am not sure I really have an opinion based on what I’ve read. However, I keep seeing people oppose it on the basis of “protecting our public health” , “traffic”, or the classic “what about our property values”. These are all probably valid. But I find it all a little hypocritical.
Why? Well, I would ask anyone if they’ve been to the South End recently. Any street or public park will do. I feel like we live in a transfer station. There is more trash in the gutters and in my driveway on any given day, especially trash day (Fridays), than ever makes it to a landfill. Our public parks, especially West Beach and Ashley Park, are full of more trash (plastic bottles, lottery tickets, and nips leading the charge) than I think can adequately be conveyed. It’s disgusting. And it’s unhealthy.
Now that everyone is outraged about pollution, litter, and its detrimental effects on everything – I wonder – are we ready to do something as a city? Or do we just care about this new flash point and will move on once its approved or denied? One sign of a strong community is one that watches out for all of its residents equally. I can have the North End’s back – will they have ours?
Propose taking over Pasque Island by eminent domain and build the facility there! Low population, no abutters, easy access by water and Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard will have a place for all their trash! Oh, that’s BIG OLD money there! How many votes?
Where should New Bedford’s trash go?
YES! Todd Foy you are absolutely correct regarding the trash and litter in our streets, on my front yard and at the end of my driveway! I collect pick it up every day- the nips, the lottery tickets, plastic bottles and cans, and more recently vomit, used condoms and needles. It’s disgusting And unhealthy as Todd says!!! Every once in a while (like 2x a year) a street sweeping truck will come down the street – down the middle of the street- avoiding all the trash in the gutters!
Even when there no cars parked on the street! I’ve called to complain only to be ignored. It’s very frustrating to see and deal with and most of my neighbors ignore it and wait for the trash to blow or float away to someone else’s property.
I’m all for not letting New Bedford become A South Coast dump but why isn’t anything being done with the trash on our city streets and neighborhoods NOW. We can’t be the only people noticing it. I see trash all over the city!!
The City is in need of new leadership in City Hall. The lack of a strong litter program and enforcement is a major problem. It’s disgusting that all our streets are littered with trash and after any weekend you can go by the beaches or parks and see piles of garbage left behind. I have brought this up to the Mayor and City Councilors many times and nothing has been done. Again New Bedford deserves better.
The issue of locating a waste transfer station upon the industrially zoned island within the hydrologic Acushnet Cedar Swamp Reserve floodplain not only impacts the local neighborhoods but impacts the cedar swamp ecosystem, biodiversity, and long term viability of the natural wetland system that protects New Bedford from flooding and improves the air and the water quality of the city. New Bedford officials, local and state regulatory agencies would be wise to recognize that this natural drainage and flood retention area and wild-lands must not be fragmented nor polluted. Quietly and efficiently, the Atlantic cedar swamp, bogs and floodplain woodlands protect New Bedford and offer a view of nature relatively undisturbed. This is a treasure for the city that must be squandered for short term gain or expediency. I highly recommend that the Acushnet Cedar Swamp extended floodplain be designed as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern to lessen the treat to the water quality, flood retention, and biodiversity of this unique ecosystem of the South Coast from fragmentation and development.
threat – Damn AI spell-check
must not not be squandered
On reading that Councilors Morad and Gomes sent a letter to President Trump for help, I did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Still won’t post my comments. I guess if it’s the truth and hurts this mayor you just don’t want to be part of it. SHAMEFUL
Let the people who want to approve this Tragedy have it built in their neighborhoods! You can bet the people who are all in on this project have something to gain! Also even if something happens and they get fined. Their PROFITS would be MUCH MORE than the fines! Trust me do your Research and check if I’m lying!