Now that the venue for the special permit hearings has been established. We can watch for the rules to emerge. The Chief Quasi-Justice engaged in crafting them a fifteen year cog in the machine of the proponents. This at a minimum will provide the illusion of fullness or fairness. Any citizens absence or silence will be interpreted as consent to the proposed permit. Exactly as it was during the quiet regionalization process itself. This was facilitated by a series of memorandums of understanding, they were never significantly challenged at any time or place. Because none involved dared to rock the boat and since the public input certainly wasn’t going to be expedient, it wasn’t solicited. All public input will be limited and channeled through this newly minted instrument of evasion. Normal democracy whether by chance, design or defect, preemptively blindsided by the products of the Mayor’s legal team. Thus the public debate is contained, sidelined and then obscured by the current economic dogma of budget shortfalls, school and bridge closures and threats of Proposition 2 1/2 overrides just as it was during last fall’s election debates. The Mayor knows she must retain under her control this already immense, city enterprise and add it to her already vast legacy.
Underneath this putrid exterior of politics as usual is a sinister mechanism of environmental destruction. One that affords the rights of a natural person to corporations and in this case the D.P.W. It perpetuates the irresponsible waste of millions of tons of resources by exchanging care and custody of all of the post consumers castoffs for revenue. That seems somewhat reasonable except that to do so we will have to remain in a competitive, capital intensive, highly regulated, high risk business in the middle of an environmentally sensitive, residential area. This activity will have direct obligations extending some 80 years or more.
The Mayor would have us believe that her administration as well as subsequent ones can discharge these obligations and somehow provide a stream of revenue to provide some sort benefit to the taxpayers. This manifestly flawed concept got fobbed off to the city in the sixties and now the Mayor wants to try sell us on the same cockamamie idea, only compounded by the another manifestly flawed concept, economies of scale. This is pure malarchy. All we have to do is look at this administration’s outstanding performance record. Specifically examine the present condition of the bridges and roadways, buildings, other long term city projects and finally the existing landfill’s chronic and acute problems.
Tens of thousands of dollars in expenditures have occurred over the past year just to verify complaints of odor. This is both the literal and figurative meaning of one man’s trash being another man’s treasure. Perhaps the Mayor’s office could have personally handled those complaints and moved quickly to remedy them, just as most enlightened C.E.O.s in the private sector would have. By being accountable, acknowledging the problems, enumerating how they would be rectified, and then apologizing for the failure.
Instead the administration stonewalled my fellow citizens near the dump as they have for years. The ink hadn’t even dried on the latest D.E.P. odor enforcement predicates when a campaign was unleashed of incrementally spoon feeding a willing media all the particulars about who complained, suggesting that those expenditures were the result of some frivolous or malevolent complaints lodged by citizens seeking regulatory relief, and were unanticipated and burdensome to the enterprise fund. Set against this backdrop of brinkmanship, division, blame, obfuscation, prevarication, and personal attack is the D.P.W. expansion plan.
Fundamentally unchanged since the late 1930s a defective, archaic expansion model is bandied about like a prize Bass. What is purported to be state of the art is in fact a poor example of state of the industry (if you can call a government-enterprise free of real competition and meaningful regulatory oversight; industry) and it’s impetus was minimal compliance with a number of federal mandates that took effect in 1990s. Those mandates themselves were in development for more than a decade. This cobbled together approach, “containment transport model,” still allows burying minimally processed waste and then attempting to control the effluent and emissions. Rather than a precautionary approach of controlling the inputs to landfill and only landfilling the minimum reducible stream. This technique has been deployed worldwide successfully. It was in fact articulated by Armand Duseau to the city council some 30 years ago. The capital costs are higher but so is its asset value and the environmental performance is significantly enhanced.
As the available landfills diminish in number, the dimensions of this tragedy will magnify as an avalanche of refuse and bio-solids cascade from the pristine to the spoiled. All the while progress has and will be made elsewhere. Including communities in this Commonwealth who somehow managed to come together with a common vision and purpose to overcame obstacles, implement innovative policies, and deploy programs to deal with waste and most importantly deliver a higher standard of public health and service which is the intended and desired outcome.
One of the reasons our landfill exists as an entity of city government is because in the 1960s it was advocated as a public necessity. Cloaked as a public service it certainly is providing vast benefits to an of army of planners, lawyers, contractors, regulators, employees, engineers, consultants, suppliers, and private haulers. The private rubbish businesses were then presented with the opportunity to transfer their most expensive and challenging problems to the public who are really the generators of the waste. Other towns in the region that may soon stream waste here will never have to contend with the solid waste issues facing Northampton. I am positive that none of those municipalities would ever allow a landfill to be built within their boundaries. This idea would be dead on arrival at any town meeting. The Commonwealth whose policy guidelines were intent on promoting the regionalization (this reduced the state’s burdens and is therefore more efficient for it) recognized Northampton’s representative form of government was and is susceptible to political interests. This has resulted in the crafting of a series tainted products, the regional landfill certainly being one of them, and it became the genesis of a pollution haven for the region. This countervailing interest combined with the fact that the landfill is publicly owned makes the premise of regulating it virtually impossible.
The regulators toolbox is limited to the carrot because if the stick is used it would fall solely on the backs of citizens. How can regulators sanction the city effectively when sanctions themselves are then repackaged as efforts or initiatives by the city. In essence most of the penalties were mandates to modernize and implement programs that were also substandard. This enables a cycle of violation and ineffective sanction which now has become self perpetuating. To the further detriment the sanctions have become self defeating by encouraging public tolerance, confusion, ignorance about the poor record of accomplishment and failure to comply with current environmental regulations. Was the environmental stewardship of the city so lacking that it had to be transferred to Commonwealth or was the modernization delayed so it could be traded away in enforcement negotiations?
These pernicious conflicts of interest is reason enough to give me pause as to merits of the enterprise never mind the expansion in light of its rather long and perforated history of compliance! I can’t put much stock in the city’s abilities to perform its duties. Since its been in control the compliance record is abysmal though I’d like to nominate them for a most improved award.
One of the main differences between the private and public sectors is how non performance is dealt with. Insofar as we are shareholders and citizens its important to remember the obligations of this enterprise conducted on our behalf. That includes a rigorous inquiry once every two years as to what direction we are being taken, why were be taken that way, when will we get there, how are we going to get there, where are we going, and who is going to get us there? So if we fail in our obligations we can hardly expect a favorable outcome. The consequential damages of failures will be obligations that we as the stakeholders will have to remedy or compensate. Conspicuously absent from any settlement will be the people who governed, inspected, regulated, designed, and operated the mechanism which is just as putrid as the exterior. The most toxic byproducts of the landfill are not environmental pollution. It’s a government without accountability and a democratic process corrupted. Remember that during your own biennial review of those we have elected to government.
