Read the staff report posted on the city’s website from Carolyn Misch of the Office of Planning and Development to the Planning Board dated March 18, 2010.
http://city.northampton.ma.us:8080/WebLink8/ElectronicFile.aspx?docid=78686&&dbid=0
The Mass. DEP has solid waste siting regulations that ban landfills from being sited over aquifers and within Zone II Water Supply Protection Districts for a public well. The City of Northampton received the first ever waiver from these siting regulations. This resulted in the Mass. DEP issuing a positive site suitability report or site assignment for the landfill expansion.
Attorney Bobrowski argues that because the DEP site assignment was given before the Water Supply Protection District over the Barnes Aquifer was created in 2007 that the landfill expansion is therefore grandfathered and does not require a special permit.
