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The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has fined a New Bedford waste facility after a May fire caused a rat outbreak at the facility and in the surrounding neighborhood.
MassDEP fined E.L. Harvey & Sons, Inc., $29,980 for failing to prevent a rodent infestation and causing a public nuisance at its solid waste transfer station at 1254 Shawmut Ave. after a May 14 fire on the premises. Responding to a complaint from the City of New Bedford, MassDEP inspected the facility and found “hundreds” of rats in the waste transfer station as well as numerous rats in the surrounding area.
“Solid waste regulations are designed to protect public health by providing rules and standards for the safe operation of transfer stations,” Gerard Martin, director of MassDEP’s southeast regional office in Lakeville, said in a news release. “MassDEP appreciates the partnership of the City of New Bedford to ensure E.L. Harvey brought the facility back into compliance and retained appropriate professionals to address the rodent issues at the facility and in the community.”
Solid waste transfer stations are required by state law to have measures in place to mitigate rodents and other disease-carrying vermin. MassDEP instructed E.L. Harvey & Sons, Inc., to take steps to control the infestation immediately and inspected the site multiple times to ensure that the facility acted quickly. MassDEP also ordered the facility to cease and desist all waste operations until necessary repairs have been made and the facility implemented a robust rodent control plan to keep rats at bay in the future.
“I appreciate MassDEP’s ongoing collaboration with the New Bedford Health Department and its willingness to hold E. L. Harvey accountable for failing to comply with its public health obligations,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said.
May’s rat outbreak shut down roads and prompted more than 20 complaints from neighbors in just one day, Ward 3 City Councilor Shawn Oliver, who represents the affected area, told The New Bedford Light at the time. The City of New Bedford had to close a nearby playground due to rodent activity.
A Price Rite worker who asked to remain anonymous said they had to stop driving down the street to avoid flattening the cascade of rodents.
“It’s so hard to believe,” they said at the time. “There were so many on the sidewalks and on the grass. There were live rats running across the street to eat dead rats.”
The rat debacle comes as New Bedford’s Board of Health considers plans for another waste transfer station at the New Bedford Business Park on 100 Duchaine Blvd. The proposed facility, brought forth by Parallel Products doing business as South Coast Renewables, had been approved by the MassDEP in July before going before the board in multiple rounds of public hearings this August.
In a public hearing on Aug. 5, South Coast Renewables shared its rodent control plan, which included bait stations, glue and snap traps, sterilization techniques, and regular burrow inspections at the facility. Over the course of four hearings, hundreds of New Bedford residents turned out to protest the proposal, including one attendee with a sign that read, “The Rats Are Coming.”
The board is set to deliberate on the proposal in virtual meetings on Monday, Sept. 8, and Tuesday, Sept. 16.
On Thursday, Sept. 4, Ward 1 City Councilor Leo Choquette complained that the board had failed to publish the meeting agenda two business days ahead of time, per state law.
“Once again, this process has been obfuscated, and the public has been met with a significant degree of subterfuge,” Choquette wrote in a statement. “Thousands of Ward 1 residents are in danger of significant negative impacts from this decision, including loss of Home Equity and Quality of Life. This lack of transparency must be addressed by the NB Board of Health immediately.”
The city has since posted the agenda.
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
“Bring the Garbage and the Rats will come”. 100% we need new Leadership in City Hall, it is time for King Mitchell’s reign to come to an end.