NEWBURYPORT — The Crow Lane landfill case is heading for litigation after a hearing yesterday ended a potential settlement of the issue — a move that means the city must spend more taxpayer money on legal fees.
New Ventures, the landfill's owner; the state Department of Environmental Protection and the state attorney general have been in negotiations for months to develop a settlement regarding the capping and closing of the embattled dump, which for years has been the source of rotten-egg smells that have caused nausea and other health problems in nearby neighborhoods.
Those negotiations were kept private, even from city officials.
But the negotiations broke down in recent weeks when the City Council rejected a plan from New Ventures requesting the city open the Host Community Agreement to allow more trucks into the landfill to dump more material in an effort to close it by year's end.
In exchange, the city would have been relieved of certain potential lawsuits.
But after a hearing at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston yesterday, the city was included in the case, Mayor John Moak said. The mayor said he is expecting to pay even more in legal fees to fight on the city's behalf.
"It is another lawsuit. It is another action that we have to go through," Moak said. "It may be good because we can present our case to the judges. But anytime we are involved in another lawsuit, it gives my pocketbook palpitations."
Moak, who did not attend the hearing, said it is unclear how the city will be included in the case since he has yet to see the relevant documents from New Ventures. A city attorney did attend the hearing.
"We're in a hold right now until we see how they are involving us in this case, but we will be active in this case now," the mayor said, adding that once he reads the documents sometime today, "then I will know everything about it that I ever wanted to know."
Ron Klodenski, a member of the active ad hoc landfill committee and a neighbor of the dump, said though he doesn't know the specific legal ramifications of the city being included in the case, he is hopeful about its new role in the litigation.
"At least now we are able to make sure the DEP doesn't negotiate away our health and safety," he said. "Well, it doesn't prevent them from doing it, but at least we'll know about it and we'll have a say.
"I think it is a good thing."
For nearly a half decade, the neighbors of the landfill have been plagued by the smells of rotten eggs and burnt matches produced from the decomposing gypsum at the site. The smells have caused headaches, bloody noses, watering eyes and ruined summer days for the neighbors, who often argue passionately against New Ventures.
State and local officials have fought New Ventures about the management of the landfill, a fight that has included many fines and shutdowns of the site.
New Ventures, which purchased the landfill in 2000 to cap it and close it, is seeking to bring in more debris, which is how the company makes money. It also argues that the city is liable for at least portions of the capping costs since it dumped material such as treated sewage there in decades past.
The next hearing is scheduled for July 14.
Klodenski said he doesn't see an end to the saga coming anytime soon.
"The impression I got was that this was going to drag on for a lot longer," he said.
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