DEP commissioner: Incinerator moratorium will not be lifted

SAUGUS – Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Kenneth L. Kimmell said even though Gov. Deval Patrick announced some changes to the statewide incinerator moratorium Tuesday, development of alternative technologies won?t affect the Wheelabrator plant in Saugus “at all.”?We?re not lifting the moratorium on incineration,” said Kimmell in a phone interview on Tuesday. “The moratorium that covers facilities like the Saugus incinerator will continue to cover that ? We?re not talking about lifting it ?The moratorium has no end date on it.”Patrick issued the state?s final Solid Waste Master Plan on Tuesday, which Kimmell called a “bold vision for dramatically increasing the amount of waste that we recycle and reuse rather than burn or bury.”The goal of the master plan is to reduce waste by 30 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, according to a press release from the DEP.Part of the master plan includes a modification of the current 23-year-old incinerator moratorium to “encourage the development of innovative and alternative technologies for converting municipal solid waste to energy or fuel on a limited basis.”Kimmell said this modification allows for a “limited exemption” for about 5 percent of the waste stream for new technologies like gasification and pyrolysis, which he said don?t involve combustion.Kimmell said the state is running out of landfill space and runs the risk of exporting up to two million tons of trash to other states by 2020.?This exemption will allow at least some of this trash to be handled by in-state facilities,” he said. “We have cities and towns that are running out of good options, and they want the chance to explore some other technologies. We feel if they and the developers can prove these facilities are protective of public health and energy-efficient and can handle parts of the waste stream we can?t recycle, we want to give them a chance.”While the DEP held a public comment period on the master plan for the last several months, Saugus officials including State Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein, D-Revere, State Rep. Donald Wong, R-Saugus, State Sen. Thomas McGee, D-Lynn, the Board of Health and the Board of Selectmen, spoke out against any changes to the moratorium and wrote letters to the governor.Joan LeBlanc, Executive Director of the Saugus River Watershed Council, said the decision was a “major disappointment” and will be looking to local leaders to “hold the line on no expansion in the watershed.”?We were really looking for some leadership on this issue and the decision to expand waste incineration is definitely major disappointment,” she said. “Even with the new technology, what we?re looking at is bringing in increased emissions and increased contaminated ash into local communities ? Our position is always no new sources of pollution of any kind.”Kimmell stressed the modification doesn?t affect the Saugus Wheelabrator plant and the press release states the modification will not “change or lift the moratorium on construction of new capacity for traditional combustion of municipal solid waste.”As part of the master plant, the DEP will also increase its inspections of landfills, incinerators and transfer stations to ensure compliance with current waste bans, said the release, and will require all solid waste facilities to hire independent third-parties to perform regular facility inspections.Don?t Waste Massachusetts, a coalition of statewide environmental groups, released a statement saying it is “deeply disappointed” by Patrick?s decision and called it a “huge mistake and a betrayal of the public?s expressed wishes.”?Facilities that burn waste take recyclable and compostable materials and turn them into toxic byproducts that then must be landfilled,” said the statement. “In addition to being the most expensive way to generate energy, incineration is dirty and inefficient. Gasification (staged incineration) has a record of failure in this country and worldwide ?”Matt Tempesta can be reached