Railroad Seeks Postponement For Wetlands Permit Hearing

By Andrew Gorosko

The Housatonic Railroad Company is requesting that the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) postpone a planned April 28 public hearing on the railroad’s application for a wetlands protection permit.

The railroad is seeking that wetlands permit in connection with its controversial proposal to increase the range of solid waste and also expand the tonnage of solid waste that it handles at its 30 Hawyleville Road (Route 25) terminal.

In an April 20 letter to the IWC, Edward Rodriguez, the railroad’s vice president, writes, “Due to the extent of the information that we are collecting for presentation to the [IWC] and the difficulties presented by the recent weather, we ask that the [IWC] postpone the public hearing on our application until the May 12, 2010, meeting.”

George Benson, town director of planning and land use, said April 22 that such requests for public hearing postponements typically are granted.

The current information on file in the application lacks the many details required for such a permit request.     

 Also, eight people have submitted a request to the land use agency that they be granted legal intervenor status in the railroad’s application for a wetlands permit.

That request was submitted under the letterhead of the Hawleyville Environmental Advocacy Team (HEAT), an ad hoc citizens group that opposes the solid waste handling expansion project.

The IWC would review that request for intervenor status. Such status would make the intervenors a legal “third party” to the wetlands permit application.

In February, IWC members unanimously rejected a wetlands permit application for the railroad site that had been sought by Newtown Transload, LLC, a firm that would work as a contractor for the railroad on the expanded waste handling operations.

Newtown Transload then filed a legal appeal against the IWC, in seeking to have a Danbury Superior Court judge order the IWC to issue it a wetlands permit. That court appeal is pending.

The current wetlands permit application concerns the extensive earthen filling that has occurred on the northern section of the railroad property where a spur of track would be built in connection with the railroad’s proposal to expand its solid waste handling operations.

The railroad proposes significantly increasing its transfer of solid waste from heavy trucks onto railcars for shipment by rail for disposal at out-of-state landfills.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is reviewing an application from the railroad to expand its solid waste handling operations. An as-yet-unscheduled DEP public hearing is expected on that application.

On April 9, DEP officials inspected the railroad property where one week earlier, a section of shed roof had fallen down in an area where the railroad temporarily stores solid waste before the waste is trans-shipped by rail for disposal. Inspectors from DEP’s solid waste and stormwater control units visited the property.

Bethany McWade, a DEP environmental analyst, described in a report the waste control conditions that were encountered at the property.

The town government and HEAT have opposed the railroad’s expanded waste handling proposal. Town government opposition and the citizens group’s opposition focuses on issues including the potential for surface water pollution and groundwater pollution due to expanded waste operations. Other issues concern quality-of-life matters, such as increased truck traffic, increased noise, and additional blowing dust in the area.