XXX March 22, 2021

Gardner plans on pretty much doubling the size of the City’s Sludge Dump located at West. St./Rt. 68 – in the Wildwood Cemetery Forest and the Cummings Otter River Conservation Area.

This is located at and within the fragile and invaluable ecosystems and watersheds existing there – which are part of the Otter River, Millers River and Connecticut River watercourses/systems.

The location has never made environmental sense – but it came about in 1919.  

In 2016 the expansion of this Sludge Dump was presented to the City Council as the only affordable option that the City had relative to a Sludge Dump that was nearing its “no vacancy” point.  

At that time, the City Council was presented with no information that the expansion might adversely affect the ecosystems and riversystems there.

Apart from the fact that cost estimates and the feasibility of options totally lose their confidence-reliance factor, and potency, when over four years have gone by, is expanding the existing Sludge Dump at that fragile ecosystem area in Gardner the right thing to do in 2021 and beyond?

If we didn’t care about the environment, the answer would be “yes.”

In 2016 the prior Executive Administration combined two infrastructure projects together: project one was the upgrades to the Wastewater Treatment Plant (“WWTP”); project two was the Sludge Dump Expansion.

At that time, we all knew that the WWTP needed upgrades, and the DEP was on it.  We had to act.  The WWTP upgrade was a foregone conclusion, and there was simply no debate about that – and it had to happen.  It’s like staring at your banana peel tires, and seeing your own face staring back at you.  You either don’t drive that car, or you get new tires.

But, the prior Executive Administration tied the necessary WWTP upgrades (project one) to the construction of an horizontally-expanded Sludge Dump (project 2).  

However, they were not dependent.

The necessary WWTP upgrades included the replacement of the Belt Filter Press (the “de-watering equipment”).  

This is because the Executive Administration advised the City Council that only two options were feasible: 1) expanding the Sludge Dump, or 2) hauling dried Sewer Sludge out of town (wet Sludge, i.e., if we didn’t add the centrifuges to the upgrades, was cost-prohibitive – and was not a viable option).  

Both options required that Belt Filter Press be replaced with centrifuges.

Therefore, it’s a reality that the WWTP upgrades were going to happen in 2016 with centrifuges – even if the Sludge Dump was not going to be expanded.

That is, the City Council could have approved the said WWTP upgrades, while voting “no” to the expansion the Sludge Dump. 

But that is not how the Executive Administration framed things.  Instead, it tied the expansion of the Sludge Dump to the necessary WWTP upgrades as co-dependent matters – even putting them into the same City Council vote (one City Council agenda item).

For example, the Executive Administration advised the City Council that “[t]he decision to move forward with the design and construction of the (upgraded de-watering equipment) would ultimately mean the (horizontal) expansion of the Sludge Landfill located off West Street” (the parentheticals are added for clarity, but the bold type is original, I did not add it – and it was the only bold type in a fairly long advisory letter).

Based upon the representations that the two projects were of equal urgency, and were co-dependent, the City Council voted for the necessary upgrades to the WWTP (project one) and, at the same time, voted to endorse the Executive Department’s idea to pursue the possibility of constructing an expanded Sludge Dump (project two) [the City Council ended up dividing the two votes; the first was 11-0, the second was 10-1].

So, why did the prior Executive Administration conjoin the two matters?

First of all, the expansion of the Sludge Dump was never a popular idea – and no one wanted to do it.  It did not past the smell-test.

But, the Executive Administration saw the expansion of the Sludge Dump as the only feasible option (it wasn’t) for future Sewer Sludge in Gardner.

By tying the expansion of the Sludge Dump (project two) as an automatic consequence of what was going to be a unanimous City Council approval of the necessary WWTP upgrades (project one), then the Executive Administration would be able to keep both the baby and the bath water – and, just like that, the smelly idea gets through on coattails.  

It’s like putting the 350-pound Refrigerator Perry on a full head of steam with Walter Payton holding onto the back of his jersey for a 1-yard TD walk-in.

Still, the City Council vote was a valid vote.  

The City Council voted to “endorse” the prior Executive Department’s idea to “pursue” the prospects of constructing an expansion of the Sludge Dump.  Those are the exact words of the vote. 

As far as City Council action goes, that’s about as milquetoast and non-committal as you can get.

The City Council did not vote to actually construct an expanded Sludge Dump.

The City Council has never appropriated one penny for the actual construction of the expanded Sludge Dump.  

Since 2016, not one shovel has touched the ground on the actual construction of the expansion of the Sludge Dump.  

Since 2016, the City Council has appropriated about 8% of the $5 million it will cost to have an operating, expanded Sludge Dump.  These appropriations were for some engineering, permitting and design – not for any actual construction.  The last appropriation was well over a year ago.

Over four years have passed since the City Council’s original “endorsement” of the Executive Department’s “pursuit” of a very expensive idea. 

Will a future City Council act favorably toward that 2016 “endorsement”? Will the notion of constructing an environmentally unfriendly (jeopardizing?) Sludge Dump expansion proximate to, and within, fragile ecosystems and rare geological formations, at the cost of $5 million of the Citizenry’s money, prompt a City Council to re-think it – before it’s too late?

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