'Smells so bad': Rochester residents fed up as Turnkey Landfill is poised to grow

ROCHESTER — "What is it we are smelling, and why is it so bad?" City Councilor Tim Fontneau asked. "Is this a safety issue? People say they go outside, and it smells so bad they run back inside and close their windows."

Waste Management, which is awaiting a permit to expand operations at Turnkey Landfill at 176 Rochester Neck Road in Rochester, is facing questions about increased odor.

"We have been hearing from our residents, who are telling us there are very bad odors," Mayor Paul Callaghan said.

The questions came Oct. 17 during a public hearing the Rochester City Council held with Steve Poggi, director of disposal operations for Waste Management.

Poggi acknowledged the worsening odor, blaming unusually high amounts of rainfall this summer and fall.

He told councilors Waste Management is taking action to remediate the odor problem and indicated the company believes it is not a safety concern for area residents.

Callaghan asked Poggi if Waste Management had to remediate odor issues in the past. He said no.

Poggi said rainfall measured on site was 47.6 inches from January to September, and the facility's gas collection system has occasionally been compromised.

"Excessive amounts of rainfall can 'flood out' the gas collection pipes, causing landfill gas to leave the site outside of the closed collection system," he said. "This can cause temporary odor issues on site and in the surrounding area. We are aware of the increase in odor complaints over the past several months and have taken immediate and aggressive action to correct the causes. As noted, because collection pipes that take on water may have reduced capacity to manage landfill gas, much of the focus has been installing new collection pipes and wells."

Poggi said Waste Management expects the mitigation measures to be complete within the next couple of months.

"We have increased our efforts to engage with our neighbors as we undertake these site improvements," Poggi said. "The Turnkey facility has a dedicated phone line for area residents to call when they experience an odor they believe is coming from the facility."

He said residents can call 855-514-5157 "once an odor has been detected and provide specific details about the time, location, and nature of their observations." He said a third party takes the calls and relays information from residents to Waste Management so the company can "investigate, track and quickly respond to any odor complaints."

State Rep. Peter Schmidt, D-Dover, who heads the Strafford County delegation, said he has continued to hear concerns from constituents.

"An odor is not necessarily just annoying," Schmidt said.

"Depending on what is in there, it can be harmful to you. It can cause disease or can even kill you."

Residents are worried about expansion of materials at Turnkey Landfill, too

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services is due to make a decision Wednesday, Oct. 25, on a permit that could allow an additional 1.4 million to 1.55 million tons of waste, some of it from out of state, to be accepted in an expansion of the Turnkey Landfill. This possibility has led to public concern over increased pollution.

According to the permit application, the more than 1,300-acre site in Rochester, which is operated by a private subsidiary of Waste Management, has proposed a plan to increase its disposal capacity and extend the lifespan of its 218-acre active landfill by adding another 60 acres. Three landfills exist at the site. Two are inactive and capped.

The Conservation Law Foundation fought the expansion with a lawsuit in 2020 but was not successful. Now it's up to the state Department of Environmental Services to decide if the Clean Air Act Title V permit to accept more materials will be granted.

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Retired local scientist Cynthia Walter, who holds a Ph.D. in biology, is among those who raised concerns by submitting comments to a public hearing about the plans at Turnkey Landfill, held by the state DES last month in Concord.

She raised concerns about safety standards and said she does not believe the landfill should be allowed to take in more materials until much-improved monitoring steps are in place.

"Citizens can smell Turnkey in their neighborhoods, but no one knows what they are breathing. Air pollutants from landfills include many that harm health," she said.

Gary Milbury is the administrator for permitting and environmental health for the Department of Environmental Services' air resources division. He said concerns about pollutants is not a component of the permit Waste Management is seeking and cannot be taken into consideration. He said Waste Management already received a temporary permit.

"The permit looks at two areas," he said. "The first part asks to roll the temporary permit into a permanent one. This is normally done as a minor modification revisited every five years, if they meet all criteria. The second part is a requirement for (Waste Management) to meet all U.S. EPA updated requirements for landfills. We can open the permit to make sure those are included. Because of that, we agreed to call this a significant modification. But anything other than those two requirements are not part of the permitting process."

Milbury said predicting the impact of Waste Management bringing in more material is hard to predict. He also said because of interstate commerce clauses, the department cannot prevent material from coming in from other states.

"But in another point, the more they bring in, the faster they will fill up, and eventually they will need to cap and close the landfill," Milbury said. "We are certainly not unsympathetic to the concerns. The whole reason we permit is because of concerns. We can take a look and look at their best practices and work to remediate issues if found."

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Walter said she is concerned there could be air pollutants that "do not smell at all. ... Particulate enters the lungs and can go deep. It can cause asthma, heart attacks, and other breathing problems. Children in those neighborhoods are playing outside, every day. I fear for pregnant women and their unborn babies."

Walter said the presentation given by Poggi to the Rochester City Council was worthless.

"It did not tell those people anything at all," she said. "There is no proof the odor is a result of the rain, and while it could be, they did not offer any proof, and they were very misleading, in my opinion."

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Turnkey Landfill poised to grow as Rochester raises stink about odor