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After the New Bedford Board of Health denied a proposed waste transfer station in the city’s Far North End this week, activists and nearby residents breathed a sigh of relief.
But the fight may not be over.
Parallel Products, the company that proposed the waste transfer station as South Coast Renewables, did not respond to multiple inquiries from The Light about whether the company plans to appeal the Board of Health decision. If South Coast Renewables does choose to appeal, the project could potentially bypass the local board and receive an approval, without conditions, from the Superior Court.
It was this concern that led Board of Health member Dr. Elizabeth Blanchard to vote to approve the facility in the 2-1 decision.
Ward 1 City Councilor Leo Choquette, who represents the neighborhood that would have hosted the waste transfer facility, called Tuesday’s decision “probably the most important decision in the history of the North End.”
“I only pray that if it’s appealed, it doesn’t get overturned,” Choquette said. “What would be even better is if Parallel Products, South Coast Renewables, whatever they call themselves, if the board of directors just says, ‘Listen, we’re gonna cut our losses, and we’re not going to push this any further.’”
The question would ultimately come down to money, like most things do, Choquette said. Most companies simply would not want to spend additional funds on an appeal they had no guarantee to win, and Choquette estimated that the company likely has already spent millions on the project’s six-year review. He added that if South Coast Renewables did plan to appeal, the public likely wouldn’t hear about it for another week.
Mayor Jon Mitchell had a more cautious reaction to Tuesday’s news: he opted not to comment on the outcome of the decision itself.
“The members of the board are to be commended for their dedication in carefully considering the arguments, and arriving at a good faith decision on the merits,” Mitchell said in a statement.
In 2022, in the project’s earlier stages, Mitchell signed a community host agreement with South Coast Renewables in exchange for the company removing a biosolids facility from the project’s initial proposal. The agreement, which prevented the mayor from publicly opposing the project, earned him ample flak from activists and City Council members.
“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,” city spokesperson Jonathan Darling said this July, after the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection approved the facility. “At the same time, the City’s outside legal experts predicted — correctly in retrospect — that the state would inevitably approve the facility.”
The board’s decision negates the city’s community agreement with South Coast Renewables.
In the wake of the decision, South Coast Renewables must pay the city $61,691 in attorney’s fees, plus $2,800 in police and auditorium fees for the hearings. These fees come on top of the $83,363 South Coast Renewables initially paid the city, which were expended due to the lengthy review process, Darling said in an email.
Without the waste transfer station, the City of New Bedford also now sits short of the roughly $800,000 in annual revenue the facility had been estimated to bring in under the mayor’s community agreement. Where that revenue will come from is anyone’s guess, but as Choquette pointed out, it’s only a drop in the bucket for the city’s roughly $600 million budget.
“The City is always looking for additional revenue sources,” Darling wrote in a statement.
Opponents of the proposal say the transfer station debate exposed critical gaps in the city and state review processes for waste facilities.
Activist and president of the local advocacy group South Coast Neighbors United Wendy Morrill said for her, the fight was proof that the state has not done enough to protect communities disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards. Her organization will now focus on strengthening protections for environmental justice communities, she said.
In his opening remarks at Tuesday’s meeting, Board of Health member Alex Weiner called the city’s regulations “outdated” and “designed to leave community voices out.”
Weiner also said he was confident that the board’s decision would stand up to an appeal.
“I don’t know how I would design this process if I could design it,” Weiner said in an interview after the vote. “But I’m proud of the outcome.”
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
It is of great importance for all the people (residents, families, groups, and politicians) who fought so hard to stop this Waste Transfer Station to stick together, remain strong, and keep the message alive that is Waste Transfer Station is not wanted or welcome in our community.
With all the money that they are spending, since 2016, the Sunbeam Building the PR campaign, you just know that they will not give up that easy! Like the felon in the White House, you appeal, appeal, appeal! Then maybe throw in a lawsuit for leverage!
This is NOT a NORTH END issue. This is an issue for ALL lungs and human breathing systems that would inhale the cloud of diesel fumes that would collect over this region. Nearly 400 waste trucks that would traverse the roadways, belching toxic material for all living creatures in the area to ingest, in and around the communities they pass through and beyond. Air is not static.