Dave Reckhow, chair of Northampton's Board of Public Works, recently spoke with journalist Mary Serreze about the BPW's decision-making process on the Glendale Road Landfill expansion vote, about city council president Jim Dostal's recent resignation from the BPW, and about the possibility of Northampton's adopting tenets of the Zero Waste movement.
MCS: Dave, you are in a key leadership position regarding Northampton's upcoming decision about the proposed landfill expansion. What is your background, and your area of expertise?
Dave Reckhow: I'm a professor of Environmental Engineering at UMass Amherst; my area of expertise is water quality.
MCS: How long have you been with the Board of Public Works?
Reckhow: Since 1999. I became Board of Public Works chair several months ago when city councilor Bob Reckman stepped down.
MCS: What is the purpose of the BPW public forum that's going to be held on Thursday, the 19th of November, at the JFK Middle School?
Reckhow: The BPW wants to collect information about options to expanding the landfill. And not only that, but options that might be implemented concurrent with the expansion of the landfill. We are going to bring in some experts; some innovative thinkers. And we also want to hear from the public. We want to make sure that our decision-making about the landfill expansion special permit is well-informed.
MCS: I understand that Stantec engineering consultants have been hired to develop an "options study." Are you planning on unveiling that study at the meeting on the 19th?
Reckhow: No, this meeting is meant to gather more insight, knowledge, and information so that we can go back to Stantec and ask them to broaden the scope of their study. We want the options study to be as comprehensive as possible. And the options should not just cover what to do if the landfill is not expanded. We need to look at ways of doing things better even if the expansion goes through.
MCS: So, the BPW might advance the special permit application for the expansion, but attach conditions to it?
Reckhow: That might be one approach.
MCS: And, if the permit application is advanced by the BPW, the city council might choose to approve the landfill expansion, but make it contingent upon certain conditions?
Reckhow: I imagine that the city council might be able to impose conditions upon their vote.
Serreze: James Dostal, City Council President, resigned from the Board of Public Works last week. Does that have anything to do with the upcoming landfill vote? Mayor Higgins has made it clear that she is interested in making sure that there are no legal challenges to the city council vote on the landfill special permit application. And I know that (former mayoral candidate) Gene Tacy has contacted the state ethics commission about what he perceives as a conflict of interest in Dostal's dual role as city council president and Board of Public Works appointee. What prompted Dostal's resignation from the BPW?
Reckhow: Jim Dostal's resignation was in response to concerns that have recently been raised about the wisdom of city councilors serving on volunteer boards. I don't believe that his resignation was tied to specific concerns from the mayor's office about preventing legal challenges to the landfill vote. Jim is a repository of vast institutional knowledge about public works in Northampton; I am sorry to see him go. Jim had been recusing himself from BPW decision-making on landfill-related subjects anyway.
MCS: Do you believe he would have recused himself from the BPW vote on whether to advance the special permit for the landfill expansion?
Reckhow: Yes.
MCS: M. J. Adams, executive director of Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity, is taking Dostal's place on the BPW. She has a background in economic development and was chair of the long-range solid waste planning committee under Mayor Ford ten years ago.
Reckhow: Yes, she will be a great addition to the board. I am really looking forward to working with her.
MCS: Mayor Higgins has told me that long-range solid waste planning is the purview of the Board of Public Works, and that she would rather not convene a specific committee on long-range solid waste planning until after the landfill vote. The situation is very polarized right now. Would you care to comment?
Reckhow: I think that it would be a good idea to reconvene a committee–whether it's a subcommittee of the BPW or an independent body–to look at long-range solid waste planning in Northampton and the region. Whether this happens before or after the vote is not the most important issue. We need to think about how to reduce our waste stream regardless of the landfill expansion decision.
MCS: Stantec engineering consultants stands to make a lot of money if the landfill expansion is approved. They have the contract lined up for design services for the Phase 5/Phase 5B expansion. Can Stantec be trusted to produce an unbiased study of the available options to the landfill expansion plan in Northampton?
Reckhow: Yes, I believe so. They are working with HDR on this project, which is an environmental consulting firm that specializes in innovative waste management solutions. Stantec will probably have contracts with the city regardless of which way the landfill vote goes.
MCS: Six months ago, Mayor Higgins was talking about the special permit application for the landfill expansion from the Board of Public Works to the city council as if it were a done deal–that the permit application would be advanced without question. But, as BPW chair, you have made it clear that you intend to assert the BPW's procedural power on this issue.
Reckhow: Right, it's still up in the air as to whether the BPW will advance the permit application or not. The issue of the landfill expansion deserves due deliberation. The BPW does have the power to make this choice. I don't know how everybody on the board feels about this issue, or how they will vote. But I do know that all members want their vote to be informed by good information.
MCS: How do you feel about the tenets of the so-called Zero Waste movement? Zero waste may never be actually achieved, but a number of progressive cities within the United States, such as Seattle, have adopted it as a goal; something that is worked on every year; something that inspires continual improvement.
Reckhow: I agree with you; while we may never reach actual zero waste, we need to move in that direction.
MCS: But what if source reduction imperils the economic viability of the landfill, which depends upon a healthy waste stream to cover its costs? Do you see a contradiction?
Reckhow: There might well be a contradiction. That's something that the BPW will want to look at carefully. If there are conflicts between waste reduction and the economics of operating the landfill, we'll want to examine that. We'll need to define our priorities. I believe that we should be reducing our waste stream. Whether that is compatible with the landfill expansion has yet to be determined.
