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Health Board Blasts Harvey
December 5, 2003 - MetroWest Daily News
By David
McLaughlin, News Staff Writer
HOPKINTON -- The Board of Health decided last night to get some
advice on whether to yank its approval of trash hauler E.L. Harvey's
recycling center after what members said was a "revelation" of a second
landfill on the property.
Board members blasted the company for never
saying anything about another landfill that straddles an area on the
border of Hopkinton and Westborough. Board member Jeff Hersh said it was
"frustrating" the information was "withheld" from the board.
"This is the nth thing that we have subsequently found out after 35 hours
of hearings that we had no knowledge of. It was not presented to us,"
Hersh said.
Harvey lawyer, Stephen Richmond, rejected the idea that the landfill is a
secret. He said the now-closed landfill has been around for 50 years and
once served as the Westborough town dump. He says its existence has no
bearing on the proposal to create a recycling center.
The board unanimously voted to ask selectmen to pay for a lawyer with a
specialty in solid waste management, not the town counsel, a vote that
generated applause from residents at the meeting. If selectmen approve the
request, Hersh said he wants the lawyer to look into whether the Board of
Health's approval of the recycling center, called a site assignment,
should be reconsidered.
"There are lots of questions going back and forth between attorneys and
the Board of Health is the only one without an attorney," board chairwoman
Nancy Peters said.
The site assignment requires Harvey to "properly characterize" the
landfill on its Hopkinton property where the company is trying to get the
town's approval to build the controversial recycling center. The company
is running groundwater tests around the Hopkinton landfill in an effort to
"properly characterize" the site.
Board members said the discovery of what they said was a previously
unknown second landfill placed much doubt on that investigation. The
town's own environmental consultant appeared to back up that sentiment in
a memo sent to the board.
Harvey owner Jim Harvey, his two sons and their attorney did not attend
the meeting last night, although they usually do. Reached by phone last
night, attorney Richmond said the existence of the landfill is "absolutely
irrelevant" to the site assignment. He added he is "dismayed" that Hersh
suggested the company had an obligation to reveal the presence of the
landfill during its hearings.
"There is nothing new here. The board may want to find something new, but
there is nothing new," Richmond said. The second landfill is mentioned in
state environmental records, he said.
The board's vice chairman Richard de Mont questioned several times whether
the second landfill has any bearing on the board's approval of the
recycling center. But Hersh and Peters argued the entire Hopkinton
property falls under the board's jurisdiction.
(David McLaughlin can be reached at 508-626-4338 or at
dmclaugh@cnc.com)
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