Regional leaders explore membership in waste management coalition

The Northwest Hills Council of Governments (COG) has put municipal solid waste management solutions on the front burner.

State contracts for refuse hauling are due to expire in 2027, by which time Connecticut towns need to have alternative providers in place. Some COG towns have signed contracts with USA Waste & Recycling, but 11 have not.

A subcommittee of the COG has been exploring options throughout 2024. Creating a regional waste authority and purchasing Torrington Transfer Station to be used as a central hub has been proposed as an option. A permanent destination for the solid waste is still up in the air.

At the July 11 monthly COG meeting, Jennifer Heaton-Jones, executive director of Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority, shared information on the regional model used for the group’s 14 member towns.

HRRA covers towns from Kent to Ridgefield and has created a model that allows municipalities to continue normal operations at no additional cost. Local transfer stations collect waste as they always have, the waste gets short-hauled to a central hub (ie. Torrington Transfer Station), and then HRRA picks it up for processing.

Most garbage gets sent to the waste-to-energy facility in Bridgeport for burning. Bulky waste and construction debris is railed from Danbury to out-of-state landfills. Recyclables are processed at Oak Ridge Material Recovery Facility in Shelton, Connecticut. Scrap metal and other large recyclables are repurposed in-state.

“Our members do not pay a fee to be part of this authority. There is no financial obligation.” Heaton-Jones said. “Our revenue essentially comes from our hauler registration fees, our permits, and our program fees.”

Heaton-Jones offered a way for the 11 COG towns without a solution in place to join the HRRA. Those towns are Barkhamsted, Canaan/Falls Village, Colebrook, Cornwall, Goshen, New Hartford, Norfolk, North Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon and Winsted.

She said the growth would put a strain on HRRA’s small team in the transition. The group would need to hire more staff, so a $250 per town, per year fee, plus $2 per ton of MSW and $5 per ton of recycling, would likely need to be implemented on the new towns.

Heaton-Jones said these fees would end once the registration and permit revenues catch up to costs: “When the HRRA started in the late 80s, we had membership fees. That went away once the program fees were put in place and solid.”

COG seemed receptive to the suggestion and entered a private executive session to review the proposal. No action was taken in the session and the idea will be discussed further in the August meeting.

The toppling of King George III’s statue will be the topic a CT250 event.ct250.org

America’s 250th

Connecticut is gearing up for numerous events in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Rachel Gonzalez, the Administrative Assistant of CT Humanities informed the COG on community programming surrounding the occasion.

CT Humanities is coordinating activities and providing grants for 250th-related projects. They’ve awarded nearly $160,000 for 13 projects and over $2 million for capital improvements through their Good to Great fund.

Local communities are encouraged to form their own planning committees and submit events to include on the official CT 250 website calendar. “We do hope that organizations will work to tell inclusive stories that will enable Connecticut residents and visitors to see themselves in the nation’s narrative. Hopefully trying to broaden the view of the story of the Declaration of Independence,” said Gonzalez.

The commission is striving to create a celebration that reflects the nation’s founding ideals. It has outlined four key themes: telling inclusive stories, considering the power of place, encouraging civic engagement, and “Doing History” or grounding events in an accurate historical context.