REVERE — Framed by giant block letters declaring “countdown to closure,” a group of environmental advocates on Wednesday morning hailed the potentially imminent shuttering of the WIN Waste ash landfill in neighboring Saugus.
The so-called “retirement party” for the landfill was hosted by the Alliance for Health and Environment, Clean Water Action, Slingshot, and the Conservation Law Foundation at the Point of Pines Yacht Club, just across the river from WIN’s incinerator and ash landfill.
An engineering report completed in late 2022 by TechEnvironmental found that the landfill, which environmental advocates have said is a health hazard, would reach the 50-foot capacity it is permitted for in early 2025 and was the impetus for the event.
But, to extend the life of the landfill, the company could opt to truck ash off-site, a step it has not yet taken but is permitted for. Should the company begin trucking the ash, it would be required to notify the Saugus Board of Health and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
Last year, the Saugus Board of Selectmen approved a Host Community Agreement that would award the town millions of dollars in the form of free tipping if WIN receives the necessary permits to expand the landfill. The document remains on Town Manager Scott Crabtree’s desk.
Still, advocates, including Loretta LaCentra, an Alliance member who lives in Revere, said seeing the landfill close would be a win for the communities most impacted by WIN’s presence — Revere, Lynn, and Saugus.
“It is a pollution source,” she said. “Any reduction in a pollution source for us is a win, for sure.”
LaCentra also addressed the potential environmental impacts of WIN trucking the ash off-site, which it has said it will begin doing when the landfill reaches capacity. She urged the company to invest in a fleet of electric vehicles to offset the impact.
The event was attended by a number of local officials from Revere, Lynn, and Saugus, including Saugus Town Meeting members Peter Manoogian and Sue Palomba, Lynn City Councilors Nicole McClain and Natasha Megie-Maddrey, and newly elected Revere Ward 5 Councilor Angela Guarino-Sawaya. LaCentra said that Wednesday marked the first in a series of planned events leading up to the projected closure date in 2025.
“We will no longer put up with an unacceptable pollution source like the… incinerator and ash landfill,” she said. “To that end, we are asking Gov. (Maura) Healey and her administration, our state and local officials… to continue to stand firm in their commitment to see this landfill covered, capped, and closed once and for all.”
Guarino-Sawaya was the next speaker to address the crowd of about 35 people that had assembled at the Yacht Club, saying her biggest fear was sea-level rise creating a breach of the landfill and ash flowing into the waters surrounding Rumney Marsh, where WIN is located.
If the landfill were ever breached, Guarino-Sawaya said, it would “unleash an environmental disaster.”
Manoogian also delivered remarks, saying he intends to bring an article before Saugus Town Meeting calling for the establishment of a closure committee for the WIN landfill, the creation of which would be contingent on WIN’s participation in the process. Manoogian noted the town’s success in doing so for the Aggregate Industries quarry on Route 99.
“They don’t rely on science, they rely on politics,” Manoogian said of WIN.
He also stressed the importance of collective action in advocating for the closure of the landfill.
Clean Water Action New England Director Cindy Luppi, the final speaker, urged the audience to consider adopting strategies to reduce waste. By doing so, she said, they could reduce the amount of trash headed to the landfill — a step that, regardless of the future of the landfill, would have a positive impact on the environment.
Specifically, Luppi lobbied for residents to begin composting so food scraps don’t go to the incinerator. Doing just that would eliminate 25 to 33% of the waste in the waste stream, she said. Luppi also called on the Commonwealth to establish a statewide composting program to ease the disposal of compost.
And, she called for the Commonwealth to “truly enforce” waste bans for materials like cans, glass, cardboard, and mattresses that should be recycled. About 40% of what is burned should be recycled, according to Luppi.
Closing the landfill would be “counter-productive in the extreme,” forcing nearly 10,000 new tractor-trailer trips onto area roads each year, WIN Senior Director of Communications and Community Engagement Mary Urban said. Urban also noted the Host Community Agreement with Saugus would “codify many of the environmental benefits for which the community has advocated, including emission reductions.”
