NEWBURYPORT — Having digested the details of the mayor's latest proposal to settle the impasse between the city and New Ventures over capping the landfill, neighbors of Crow Lane fear it is even worse than the deal rejected by the City Council this summer.

Moak, who yesterday said yesterday he feels "strongly we're not giving up the ship," has been working with the city's attorneys and New Ventures, the operator of the landfill, to negotiate terms of a new settlement agreement for capping it.

A draft of the proposal was presented to councilors Thursday, and they will take a vote on whether to accept it in the coming weeks.

The new agreement would increase the volume of fill arriving at the site but would release the city from possible contamination lawsuits. It would also require New Ventures to maintain the landfill for one year after closure while the city would then undertake all post-closure activities at the landfill for 30 years, including mowing, maintenance and monitoring. The mayor said estimates for that work are about $10,000 a year.

Abutters to the landfill, who for years have been forced to deal with the strong, sulforous odors emitting from the dump, this week raised concerns about the proposed deal, saying it's not in the best interest of the city.

The abutters want an agreement that will force New Ventures to finally cap the landfill in a timely fashion and end their plight with the smells.

"Now that I've looked at it a little more carefully, I'm even more concerned than I was before," said Ron Klodenski, a leader of the landfill neighbors. "My impression is it's a waste of the City Council's time, the landfill committee's time, and the public's time to have to go through an agreement like this."

Calling it "more of the same," Klodenski said he doesn't think the agreement has any "effective enforcement mechanism," meaning the city would have to take New Ventures to court to get them to comply with the terms of the deal.

"It looks like New Ventures submitted this agreement as sort of a way to taunt the city," Klodenski said.

Bill Woodbury, an abutter on Charmanski Drive, said it is a worse proposal than the one the City Council rejected last June.

"It's not in the city's best interest," he said. "It looks like the whole thing was written by New Ventures' attorney with no consideration for the city whatsoever in it. I can't see how the City Council could possibly even considering voting a "yes" on this."

Jim Stiles, a former mayoral candidate who ran against Moak, called the proposal "a very, very weak agreement." Parts of it are incomprehensible, he said, adding that it needs to include fines.

While he wouldn't call it a worse agreement, Stiles said it removes a lot of the controls that exist in the Host Community Agreement, the contract New Ventures signed when it first started the capping operation five years ago.

Mayor defends agreement

The city is not taking ownership for the landfill, Moak said, as New Ventures would still own the property and its components, like the flare that is supposed to burn off the gases emitted from the landfill and control the smells.

"Our job is going to be to monitor, to make sure the flare is operating," the mayor said. "(Under the agreement) we have been assigned the monitoring of this. We're doing the oversight."

The fact that the city will be able to monitor the hydrogen sulfide levels is something the mayor said he really likes about the plan because it gives the city the responsibility to make sure New Ventures fixes what needs to be fixed, without having to go to a middleman.

"It puts it in our hands," Moak said. "Is it a worse agreement? No, absolutely not. I just feel very strongly that we're not giving up the ship."

If the agreement is approved, New Ventures would allow the city to install a pad or platform on the landfill where the city can build a cell tower or wind turbine and will pay $50,000 toward the design and construction of it.

Moak said he would use that platform for a cell tower or some type of alternative energy — perhaps a solar panel system.

"I don't see a wind turbine going up there," he said.

Moak pointed to the release of the city from 21E regulations —as another example of a benefit. Under 21E, the city would be responsible for paying toward the closure costs of the contaminated site, as it dumped there in years past.

"I don't want to leave the next generation or the next administration with headaches that we have not been able to resolve. To me, 21E is important. This closure is extremely important to me."

But neighbors and city councilors note that agreement does not protect the city from third-party liability and only relieves the city from 21E obligations by New Ventures.

Ward 5 Councilor Brian Derrivan, who represents the neighborhood where the landfill is, said yesterday he also wants to see the project move forward, saying it should have been finished years ago.

"Any agreement that we make with New Ventures, nobody's going to be happy with it ," Derrivan said. "Any agreement that we need to make with New Ventures regarding the landfill is unfortunate. DEP (the state Department of Environmental Protection) has put us in (the situation) that we need to make the call on this because they haven't done their job."

While the agreement states the city will be responsible for maintaining the landfill for 30 years, as time goes on, most of the maintenance will decline," Derrivan said.

The tanks won't need pumping as much as the landfill dries out, and in five to seven years, there may be no need for the flare, Derrivan said.