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United in our Opposition

A massive industrial waste processing plant on Route 145 is moving ahead for approval in the Town of Clinton. Both the scale and the dangerousness of the materials that would be processed should concern every resident of Clinton, Westbrook, Madison, Essex, and surrounding towns. Although this project has been in a quiet phase for the last two years, it is up and moving again! It will be coming up for a public hearing before the Clinton Inland Wetlands Commission in the near future. The date of the public hearing will be on March 6.

We are talking about a large and growing dump about the size of a city block with lots of what I believe to be dangerous materials stored outside that would be subject to the wind and runoff into the town’s wetlands and Long Island Sound. The facility applicants admit that more than 100 trailer trucks per day may dump rubbish into this facility in Clinton’s wetlands, and an untold additional amount of waste will come into the facility by rail. Here are some of the categories of waste material that the developers have acknowledged they wish to process at this facility: Municipal solid waste, other solid waste, composting of 100 tons per day of separated organic material, demolition waste, and sludge processing.

Of greatest concern is that the entire site would go completely under water in a major flood. An environmental engineer who recently reviewed the application for this proposed facility for the Town of Clinton has expressed serious concerns over runoff from stored materials, possible dangerousness of the materials being dumped and the flood proneness of the site. Residents of Clinton and surrounding towns must make it very clear that we are united in our opposition to this huge and dangerous operation.

James Connolly

Clinton