NORTHBORO – A two-year-old ban on disposal of large amounts of commercial food waste from getting into the state’s solid waste stream may be producing some unintended consequences, but top state officials who may be able to resolve the problems are saying little to allay fears of farmers and homeowners affected by the ban.
The storm brewing here is between the town, some residents and a farmer who runs an agricultural composting operation. The controversy has its roots in state regulations. And there is growing concern that state regulations will increase the number of composting operations on farms across the state because such operations can locate practically anywhere - including next to homes - because they are exempt from local oversight.
Town officials and neighbors of a two-year-old agricultural compost operation on a portion of Davidian Bros. Farm near Ball and Green streets say it is a nuisance because of odors, trash, flies, crows, noise, truck spillage and traffic on narrow rural roads. They contend the eight-acre operation should not be allowed in the middle of a residential area near private wells and adjacent to a popular walking trail on town and state conservation land. But there’s nothing the town can do because the operation is exempt from local oversight under state Department of Agricultural Resources regulations.
Local opponents, as well as others including two statewide organizations, fear that changes DAR proposes to make to the rules first established in 1987, and a 2014 regulation that increases the demand for composting, will greatly increase the number of large-scale composting operations on farms throughout the state while not providing safeguards to protect public health.
Edward Davidian, 64, co-owner of the 250-acre farm, say the operation is in compliance with the permit from DAR. The family, he said, is just trying to become more sustainable. The vast majority of the compost — made mostly from trucked-in commercial food waste and mixed with leaves during a yearlong process — is used to enrich the fields where the farm grows fruits and vegetables to sell. As a result, the farm has a longer growing season and has significantly reduced the use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, he said.
Mr. Davidian, a former selectman and police officer, also points out that the 94-year-old family farm was there long before the homes.
“Everybody wants to say they live near a farm. But nobody wants a farm to do farm activities,” he said. “I’m doing this to make the soil better and cut my dependence on fertilizer and pesticides, and do a better job for the environment, and I’m catching a tremendous amount of flak. I don’t understand all the problems that are in and around it. We’re getting better every day we do it. We’ve made a lot of improvements. We are entirely different than two years ago when we started. But they’re so dead set against what I’m doing that they don’t want to acknowledge that.”
Area residents, town officials and other opponents say the agricultural exemption that dates back decades was meant to allow farmers to compost produce, manure and other items from their farm to cut down on waste and to reuse the final product to improve the soil. It was not intended for today’s large-scale composting operations that some say are the result of the 2014 ban on disposal of large amounts of commercial food wastes going into solid waste streams implemented by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The ban applies to businesses and commercial operations - such as supermarkets, schools, hospitals, hotels and restaurants - that dispose of one ton or more of the material each week. The goal is to reduce the amount of solid waste, which is costly to dispose of, by diverting it to composting and recycling.
DEP commissioned a report on how the 2014 ban is working, but when the Telegram & Gazette requested a copy of the report, a representative of the agency said it is not yet available for public release.
Town Administrator John W. Coderre said Davidian Bros. is one of the first farms to accept large quantities of waste created as a result of the 2014 regulation. He said the policy has significant implications for any community that has a farm in a residential area.
“Such an important policy decision shouldn’t be made by default under a presumed agricultural exemption and needs to be discussed openly where all stakeholders can provide appropriate input,” he said.
Mr. Coderre and other opponents, including state Senate Majority Leader Harriette L. Chandler, say DAR, which is in the business of promoting farms and farming activities, should not be the regulatory agency for such operations. Instead, it should be the state DEP, which oversees all other composting operations, including municipal and commercial. DEP requires compliance with local zoning and land-use regulations. It also requires the compost be kept at least 250 feet from a drinking well.
“DAR exists to promote farm and composting, and we believe there should be a separation between the advocacy and regulatory oversight,” said Mr. Coderre. “We’re interested in having regulations that protect the neighborhoods and encourage composting. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. You can run a model manufacturing, biotech or solid waste facility, but there needs to be appropriate separation for noncompatible uses.”
Mr. Davidian, who is president of the Marlboro-based Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation, does not support local oversight. Local officials would never approve operations like his because “everybody would say, ‘Not in my backyard,’ ” he said.
Mr. Davidian said composting on farms should continue to be exempt from nuisance regulations “because otherwise complaints of noise, odor and location would put the operations out of business.” “The nuisance exemption,” he said, “is by design, not by chance.”
Town officials learn of operation from residents
The town found out about the Davidian operation after residents began inundating Mr. Coderre and the town’s health and conservation agents with complaints of odor, noise, trash coming onto residential properties, flies, crows and truck traffic and spillage. Since the summer of 2014, hundreds of emails from residents and other correspondence about the operation have been recorded by the town and forwarded to DAR. Mr. Coderre said DAR’s position was that the operation falls under the agricultural exemption and does not need to comply with DEP or town land-use regulations.
Residents contacted Ms. Chandler and state Rep. Harold P. Naughton Jr., after they learned there is nothing the town can do. Ms. Chandler said that in addition to nuisance complaints, some neighbors are complaining of headaches, recent cases of pediatric asthma and other health problems. There are also concerns that some nearby drinking wells may have been contaminated and that the operation will have a negative impact on neighboring property values.
“We have two competing interests that we have to balance here. We don’t want people to get sick and we want farmers to be able to farm,” she said. “What neighbors are asking for, and I don’t think is too big of a reach, is to allow the neighborhood to have a say.”
The veteran legislator said when she first met with DAR Commissioner John I. Lebeaux and Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew A. Beaton, she was told that the state was using the Davidian operation as a pilot to replicate across the state. She said she met with Mr. Lebeaux, Mr. Beaton and DEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg again two weeks ago. They said they’re trying to figure out what to do about local concerns, the senator said.
“I have every reason to believe that the secretary and both commissioners are sensitive to this issue,” she said. “I’m hoping that we can reach some resolution otherwise I’m planning to file legislation.” Ms. Chandler said she’s not sure what the legislation would look like, but all options are on the table.
Mr. Lebeaux, a former farmer who is also a former Princeton town administrator and a longtime member of the Shrewsbury Board of Selectmen, declined to be interviewed for this story. Requests to interview Secretary Beaton, a Shrewsbury resident, were not granted. Mr. Beaton oversees both the DAR and the DEP, the agencies at the heart of the controversy.
Katie Gronendyke, Energy and Environmental Affairs spokeswoman, said state officials continue to review comments received during the public engagement process. “We look forward to ongoing dialogue with all stakeholders while continuing to uphold our mission of protecting the long-term viability of agriculture across Massachusetts communities,” she wrote.
She also said DEP consulted with Mr. Davidian in 2014, but his operation is not a “pilot.” She said that DEP provides technical assistance to any composting operation that requests it.
There are 61 registered agricultural composting operations in the state. Eleven are located in Worcester County, according to a list provided by Ms. Gronendyke.
Mr. Davidian, however, indicated that his operation will be used to guide other farmers who want to get into large-scale composting.
“We kind of knew that. We set it up that way,” he said. “We told the department we wanted to work with them to be the best site in the state, to be something to be measured against, and we’re getting there. The only ones we can’t seem to satisfy are the neighbors.”
There is at least one nearby homeowner who seems to be satisfied: Dr. Thomas W. Levreault, who has lived at 12 Smith Road, a quarter mile from the site, the past 23 years. The doctor, who has a garden, does some personal composting and said the Davidian composting operation smelled occasionally when it first started. Now the only odor is that of decomposing leaves.
“What I like is the fact that they’re doing sustaining ... environmentally sensible stuff up there,” he said.
“We have state laws and they are what they are. If the town wants to approach the state Legislature about having a say in what they’re doing, that’s the way to go,” he added.
Another farmer in Western Massachusetts ran into similar opposition early on in the process of his composting operation.
Adam Martin said his family’s 100-acre Martin’s Farm in Greenfield was one of the first to get a permit to do agricultural composing in 1987. The farm, situated among more than 200 homes, was almost put out of business a few years ago because of neighbors’ complaints about the farm’s composting. The complaints lessened after his father, Robert Martin, purchased a $250,000 piece of compost turner machinery that compacted the composting process. Since he purchased the farm from his father two years ago, Mr. Martin has spent more than $1 million on the operation, including advanced odor-abatement equipment.
“The key to success with the community is education for the community and your relationship with abutting neighbors,” the 32-year-old farmer said. “I talk to them. I have open houses every year to allow the whole community to come check us out.”
The Davidians met with residents at least once, a few months after the operation began. They refused to meet with them again earlier this year, according to the town’s health agent, Stephanie Bacon. In her email to the town administrator, she said Mr. Davidian said he didn’t believe any good would come out of another meeting.
Mr. Davidian said neighbors initially seemed most upset that the operation is located where corn used to grow. He said he selected the specific 40-acre site on the farm because it has the porous soil that is needed for composting.
“I think it’s the visual - those piles of leaves and soil instead of a cornfield,” he said. “They’re more concerned with that but they’re grasping for other things to have someone listen and have the project stopped.”
After complaints for two years, DAR does not notify town of public hearing
Neither the town nor Ms. Chandler were notified of a public hearing DAR held from 1 to 3 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife in Westboro regarding proposed amendments to the regulations for the agricultural composting program. They attended the meeting after being informed by a resident. The amendments are being proposed as part of Gov. Charlie Baker’s order for a review of all regulations.
Several people and organizations provided oral or written testimony asking that the regulations be changed to require local oversight to provide better safeguards to protect public health. Thirteen families, who say they have been deeply affected by the composting, provided written comments. The group has hired Concord attorney Mark Lanza to represent them.
“Essentially, we all feel that since the state put in this food (composting) initiative, we have been left with no protection for air and water quality. It’s not merely smell concerns,” said Robert E. Malone, whose property at 396 Green St., is about 50 feet from the site.
Mr. Malone, a chemist, said he believes leaf debris from the composting has contaminated his drinking well with tannins. He said he never had the problem until recently. His wife also has developed respiratory health issues that he says are likely related to the composting operation.
He is also concerned with the negative impact the operation will have on property values in the neighborhood. When he moved there 10 years ago, the lot was a cornfield.
“We’re not going to be able to sell our houses for what the value is. When you stand in my yard, you see a wall of compost,” he said.
Samuel S. Wong, director of public and community health services in Hudson and vice president of the Massachusetts Health Officers Association, said while it’s high time for DAR to update the regulations for the agricultural composting program, MHOA “has serious concerns about the proposed changes because they continue to exempt the site assignment process. The regulations have not been updated since 1993.
“We believe that this revision is an opportunity for (DAR) to address the site assignment issue so that local input to the siting of these facilities can be implemented. For example, a proper site assignment process would be able to address issues associated to the location of composting operation relative the property line, abutting residential dwellings, private drinking wells, wetlands and surface water bodies,” Mr. Wong said in his Oct. 20 letter to Gerard Kennedy, director of DAR’s Division of Agricultural Conservation and Technical Assistance, who led the public hearing.
Mr. Wong, in a recent telephone interview, said as the ban on organic waste going into solid waste streams expands, the number of agricultural compost operations are going to increase across the state in coming years.
“Diverting food waste to farms is all nice and good, but when those (abutters) purchased their properties, they did not expect it to be next to a solid waste facility,” he said. “We support agricultural composting. We support composting in general. We just would like the agricultural composting to be done so that public health issues are being addressed. We’re concerned that as more of these agricultural composting operations (begin, they) will create more nuisance down the road as we can see now in Northboro”
Days before the Oct. 20 public hearing, Mr. Wong and an ad-hoc group began working on issues regarding farmers markets since they are regulated by boards of health because they sell food. The group, which includes representatives from DAR, the state Public Health Department and the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation, have since added agricultural composting to its agenda.
The Massachusetts Municipal Association also weighed in on the matter in a Nov. 3 letter to Mr. Beaton.
Executive Director Geoffrey C. Beckwith asked that the proposed changes be held for further review to ensure that the public health and safety is protected.
“We urged that the proposed regulations be clarified so the situation in Northboro could be addressed locally as opposed to being allowed to continue. The community should have the ability to regulate the commercial-like activities that are taking place that would impact neighbors in the community,” Mr. Beckwith said in a telephone interview. “While the redraft regulations weren’t intended to deal with that situation, we think that situation or similar situations should be addressed in the regulations, if given the opportunity.”
But not all agricultural compost operations run into opposition.
Joseph Donato, owner of JoBarb Farms in Bolton, said he has had a permit to compost for several years. The compost he sells comes from manure of the livestock he raises, livestock bedding, leaves and wood chips.
“You get one person who wants to make trouble for you - they have nothing else to do, they will,” he said.
“We’ve been lucky. We try to stay under the radar.”
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