Canadians encouraged to attend public meeting on Coventry landfill site

Agroup of Vermont citizens, who founded DUMP (Don’t Undermine Memphremagog Purity), are organizing a public meeting to raise awareness regarding the plan to expand the landfill site in Coventry, Vermont, just south of Lake Memphremagog. The meeting will take place on Monday, September 10 at 7 p.m. at the Gateway Centre, 84, Fyfe Dr in Newport, Vermont.

At this meeting, several invited guests will participate in a panel discussion, including two representatives of Memphremagog Conservation Inc. Robert Benoit, volunteer president and Ariane Orjikh, general manager.

MCI is encouraging Canadian citizens to attend this meeting, which will answer questions on the impact of this landfill site on Lake Memphremagog, which serves as a major source for local drinking water.

The Coventry landfill site, operated by Casella Waste Systems, is the only landfill site in Vermont, accepting garbage from all parts of Vermont as well as from several nearby states. The landfill is situated close to the Black river, Lake Memphremagog’s principal tributary. For several years now, MCI has been monitoring the site, and has raised serious concerns regarding the increase in Casella’s operation of the site. The capacity of the site, initially 270,000 tons annually, was increased to 370,000 tons annually in 2005, and to 600,000 tons annually in 2013. A permit application has now been submitted to increase the size of the site to 129 acres (an increase of 51 acres), which will allow the site to continue operating for another 22 years.

The landfill is situated at the top of the Lake Memphremagog watershed, from which 185,000 people get their drinking water, including the cities of Sherbrooke and Magog. MCI believes that this site poses a real danger to the public and that a principle of precaution should be applied. MCI also believes that this site, parts of which are less than 100 metres from the Black river, should never have been authorized in the first place. An operational failure, a natural disaster, a flood, or an earthquake would have disastrous consequences for the lake and the population, MCI says, and the site should be closed.

MCI also believes that the leachate, often referred to as garbage juice, should be treated elsewhere than at the Newport treatment plant, whose effluent is emptied into Lake Memphremagog. This plant was not designed to treat leachate and does not carry out any toxicity tests required to assess its impact on the quality of the lake’s water. An independent study should be undertaken to assess the danger that this landfill site poses to the quality of Lake Memphremagog’s water.

Those planning to attend the meeting should confirm their intention to attend by email to info@memphremagog.org.