Upper Ammonoosuc River by Alexius Horatius via Creative Commons
February 13, 2020 (CONCORD, NH) – Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) released the following statement today after Casella Waste withdrew its application for a state permit to expand its landfill in Bethlehem, New Hampshire.
“The last thing New Hampshire needs is another landfill,” said Tom Irwin, Vice President and Director of CLF New Hampshire. “The Department of Environmental Services came to the right conclusion: Casella’s proposed expansion would violate important state policy and is not in the public interest. Instead of expanding a polluting landfill, we must focus on reducing waste and ramping up recycling and compost efforts.”
New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services recently completed an analysis of the state’s waste and found that half of the total waste disposed of is from out of state.
CLF has been actively pushing for state regulators to advance New Hampshire’s solid waste management hierarchy, which favors waste reduction and recycling and ranks landfilling as the least preferable option. CLF is also currently involved in litigation against Casella as a result of toxic pollution from the landfill being discharged into the Ammonoosuc River.
CLF experts are available for further comment.
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