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After delaying a siting decision on Parallel Products’ planned waste processing and transfer facility in the business park for more than a year, state officials now want to hear more from New Bedford residents.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will host a listening session on the company’s proposed expansion on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The meeting will be at Casimir Pulaski Elementary School. The state also reopened the public comment period for the project’s site suitability application until Dec. 4.
The developments come in response to a July letter from the Conservation Law Foundation and South Coast Neighbors United.
The environmental advocacy organizations requested that MassDEP provide another opportunity for North End residents to share concerns over the project, in light of the project’s extended site suitability review and new sound and traffic data.
The company’s proposed $30 million-plus New Bedford project would process up to 1,500 tons of solid waste per day.
The letter was co-signed by a coalition of local elected officials and other environmental groups. New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell and State Rep. Chris Markey sent separate letters to the state supporting the request.
“This listening session is happening because New Bedford residents demanded a say in decisions that could bring more pollution and traffic to their neighborhoods,” wrote Alex St. Pierre, director of the communities and toxics division at the Conservation Law Foundation, in a November statement.
“For a community already burdened by environmental hazards, having a real voice in this process is essential to protecting their health and quality of life.”
The new public comment opportunities will push MassDEP’s site suitability decision for the Parallel Products facility back even further. The state’s decision is still pending. Parallel Products is doing business locally under the name of South Coast Renewables.
MassDEP and South Coast Renewables extended the decision deadline several times, between August 2023 and April 2024. The last deadline MassDEP agreed to with the company was in April.
Now, legal action may be coming. In September, South Coast Renewables’ legal team wrote MassDEP to inform them that the company is “reserving its rights.” They said the agency acted in “violation of its statutory and regulatory obligation” by not issuing a decision by the April deadline.
“MassDEP is extending the process further without any technical basis and without any authority under the statute or regulations,” said Peter Durning, a lawyer representing South Coast Renewables, in a statement to the Light.
What’s next
The company’s proposed New Bedford expansion has been in development since 2018.
Inside, workers would unload trucks and trailers full of municipal solid waste. They would sort recyclables out of the garbage and process or sell them. The workers would then repackage and ship out the remaining garbage via train or truck. That trash would be incinerated or buried in other towns and states.
South Coast Renewables has been going through MassDEP’s site suitability application process since February 2023. If the state determines the application meets its criteria, the project would move forward to the New Bedford Board of Health.
The Board of Health would then issue a public notice, conduct its own review, and hold public hearings before deciding whether or not to allow the project to be developed.
South Coast Renewables leadership says the facility is an innovative solution to the growing waste crisis in Massachusetts. They estimate it would create 75 jobs in New Bedford.
Yet many environmental nonprofits, local elected officials, and area residents oppose putting the project in the business park. They say it is not a solution to the waste crisis. They are concerned about public health and safety issues it could bring to surrounding neighborhoods. That includes fires, truck traffic, and PFAS chemical contamination.
PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” are used in manufacturing consumer goods. They easily spread through the environment, and take years to break down. They are linked to health outcomes like cancers, birth defects, and immune-system dysfunction.
The state considers the neighborhoods around the business park environmental justice communities. It says roughly a third of area residents are minority populations. A number of them do not speak English well.
City officials negotiated a host community agreement with South Coast Renewables in 2022. The terms dictate that the city would not publicly oppose the facility, if the company dropped its plans for biosolids processing on the property.
If the project goes through, the company would be required to pay the city $2 per ton of municipal waste it processes, according to the agreement. The city has estimated it will bring in upwards of $1 million in the facility’s first year of operation, between tipping fees and property tax revenue.
If New Bedford uses the facility’s services, South Coast Renewables will charge the city the lowest price that it charges any of its customers. That matters because the Crapo Hill Landfill in Dartmouth — where the city sends its garbage — is nearing capacity. It may have to close within the decade.
The Conservation Law Foundation filed a discrimination complaint against Massachusetts over the project with the Environmental Protection Agency in 2023. The CLF said the state did not do enough to communicate with the surrounding neighborhoods about South Coast Renewables.
The CLF’s St. Pierre said the new public comment opportunity “is not just a formality — it’s a real chance for the community to shape what happens next.”
“We hope to see residents sharing their perspectives and asking tough questions to ensure their voices are heard and valued in this decision,” she said.
Why so many delays?
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection was set to issue a site suitability decision for South Coast Renewables back in October 2023. Yet as of November 2024, the agency still has not decided whether the project can move forward.
So, what happened? Here’s the timeline:
- July 13, 2023: MassDEP opens a 42-day public period after South Coast Renewables met its public notice requirements for its site suitability application. MassDEP’s initial decision deadline was in mid-October.
- Aug. 31, 2023: MassDEP and South Coast Renewables extend their deadlines, to give the company time to respond to public comments. MassDEP also extends its technical review timeline. MassDEP’s new decision deadline: Nov. 1, 2023.
- Nov. 2, 2023: MassDEP raises questions over sound monitoring and traffic data in South Coast Renewables application and asks the company to gather new traffic and sound data. New decision deadline: Dec. 18, 2023.
- Dec. 18, 2023: South Coast Renewables gets more time to produce the sound and traffic reports. New decision deadline: Feb. 29, 2024.
- Feb. 1, 2024: Another extension, to give South Coast Renewables ample time to respond to MassDEP’s technical comments on its reports and to revise its sound study. New decision deadline: March 13, 2024.
- March 13, 2024: Another extension, to give MassDEP time to review the amended reports. The state received a peer review study of South Coast Renewables’ traffic report from South Coast Neighbors United early in March. New decision deadline: April 3, 2024.
- March 27, 2024: MassDEP seeks more time to review the amended sound report. New decision deadline: April 12, 2024.
- April 12, 2024: MassDEP gets yet more time to review the amended sound report. New decision deadline: April 29, 2024.
- May 15, 2024: MassDEP asks the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to review South Coast Renewables’ updated traffic data.
- June 6, 2024: MassDOT submits an analysis of the traffic report and South Coast Neighbors United’s peer review document. It submits comments that it says should be addressed in the application process.
- July 10, 2024: MassDEP informs South Coast Renewables that the company needs to respond to comments in the MassDOT traffic study and the neighbors’ peer review study.
- July 29, 2024: The Conservation Law Foundation and South Coast Neighbors United send a letter requesting an additional public comment opportunity.
- Sept. 11, 2024: Lawyers representing South Coast Renewables submit their response to MassDOT’s traffic comments, but also say that MassDEP “is in violation of its statutory and regulatory obligation to issue a Site Suitability Report by April 29.” The company says it is “reserving its rights,” and that the state has three weeks to issue a decision.
- Oct. 30, 2024: MassDEP issues notice of a public listening session on the South Coast Renewables Project for Nov. 13, and reopens the public comment period until Dec. 4.
Email environmental reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@newbedfordlight.org.
We do not want it. Stay out of the North end.