State halts use of ‘temporary’ transfer station

WEST HAVEN — A division of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection intervened into the city’s use of a city-owned lot as a “temporary transfer station.”

According to a DEEP spokesman, the agency’s Waste Engineering and Enforcement Division “received some initial inquiries about possible solid waste transfer by the Town as part of its bulky waste collection.” The spokesman said the division logged the incident as a complaint, but city officials said they were informed not to use the site before permitting issues were resolved.

In a statement posted on Facebook, city Public Works Commissioner Tom McCarthy said to “expedite and make West Haven’s semiannual bulk trash pickup more efficient, the city was using a vacant city-owned parcel at the former landfill off Front Avenue as a central location to drop and fill dumpsters for disposal.”

“The arrangement allowed the contractor to help get bulk items off city streets and load dumpsters for hauling out of West Haven,” McCarthy said in his statement.

The first of the city’s twiceyearly bulk trash pickup was April 25-29, although the city reported the dates were slightly delayed because of illness among staff of the company that does the job.

McCarthy said Monday that the use of the site dates back 20 years according to his research, but April 25 was the first time the city used the

First Avenue site for storing bulk trash since he joined the city under the administration of Mayor Nancy Rossi. McCarthy said it was intended to safeguard the city against “scrappers and metal pickers” rummaging through bulk trash left on sidewalks before it could be picked up.

“It began on Monday morning and ended prematurely Wednesday evening. Given the possibility we might be doing something wrong we decided to cease until we got clarification,” he said.

In his statement on Facebook, McCarthy said it was Thursday when the official notice came from the state.

“On Thursday, April 28, the city was notified that the activity, even though a temporary situation, may require a permit from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The city and its vendor immediately ceased operation at the site,” McCarthy said in his statement. “The city has met and will be negotiating with DEEP to permit the location to allow such activity, which will make bulk pickup more efficient and less costly to the city in the future.”

McCarthy said that as of Monday the First Avenue site had been cleared of all bulk trash.

West Haven has $29 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to spend before 2026; Rossi has proposed that $1 million of the funds be used to establish a recycling and re-use transfer station within the city to cut down on public works expenses and to make it easier to dispose of bulk trash citywide. Ken Carney, chairman of the appointed ARPA Committee, has questioned the feasibility of completing such a project within a $1 million budget.