
Torrington Transfer Station’s entrance.
Jennifer Almquist
Torrington Transfer Station’s entrance.
Municipal contracts with the state for refuse hauling expire in mid 2027. Before then, Northwest Corner towns must find a solution for municipal solid waste.
The Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG), a coalition of 21 town governments in the region, has for several years been weighing waste options. The prevailing plan as of February 2025 is to identify a central hub and create a regional waste authority to manage the operation.
To achieve this, NHCOG submitted an offer to purchase the existing Torrington Transfer Station, which has been operating since 1988, from the state agency Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority Dissolution Authority (MIRA-DA).
Currently the Torrington facility processes 25,000 tons per year of waste, recyclables, bulky items, and has a capacity to expand that to 60,000 tons. The 4.7-acre Torrington Transfer Station on Vista Drive is operated by a third-party contractor, Enviro Express Inc. in Bridgeport.
The Torrington site has an unused rail spur that could be used for waste hauling. The projected total cost of operation of the Torrington Transfer Station for Fiscal Year 2026 is $4,736,907 according to the dissolution authority.
Since the Hartford plant closed in July of 2022, MIRA-DA operates just two transfer stations in the state: one in Essex and one in Torrington.
Waste received at the Torrington Transfer Station is consolidated onto transfer trailers then delivered to the Keystone sanitary landfill in Pennsylvania. Recycling is consolidated onto transfer trailers and delivered to privately operated processing facilities in Willimantic or Berlin, where it is sorted, baled, and sold to be made into new consumer products.
Of the 21 towns in the Northwest Corner, 11 still maintain a contract with MIRA-DA. The remainder of the towns have hired private haulers, such as USA Waste and Recycling.
NHCOG members have been operating on the understanding that they have until June 30, 2027, to secure new contracts. It was recently learned that the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) is the successor agency to MIRA-DA effective July 1, 2025. Town representatives were surprised to learn that DAS is not required to honor existing town contracts. The actual contractual expiration date is unclear, which has caused confusion they hope to resolve.
Winchester Mayor and Administrator of the Barkhamsted Transfer Station Todd Arcelaschi said “Forming a regional waste authority is much more complicated than just the NHCOG simply forming one. Once one is formed, it would then be up to all the towns to take steps to join the RWA, it isn’t automatic.” He went on, ”The Torrington Transfer Station has four or five tractor trailers that ship the municipal waste to Pennsylvania, and the Recycling to Automated in Berlin.The NHCOG would likely be operating the same way, hiring a company to run the transfer station. That company would be responsible for the trucking, so the COG would not have to purchase trucks.”
The dissolution authority had agreed to keep the tipping fee — a fee paid by those who dispose of waste in a landfill, based on the weight of the disposed waste — at $131 per ton until 2027.Connecticut residents produce 3.5 million tons of municipal solid waste annually, yet the state only has capacity for 2.7 million tons.
Members of the NHCOG spoke at the Jan. 15, 2025, meeting of MIRA-DA in Hartford, who made their minutes public online.
Curtis Rand, Salisbury First Selectman, described the good work done by Sharon and Salisbury in the areas of recycling and composting. He stated that he thought the town had until June 2027 and was stunned when he learned that the contract could end as early as mid 2025. He asked for the dissolution authority’s help in maintaining the Torrington Transfer Station as a public option for the towns.
“It is in the public interest to try to keep some public option for our trash disposal in the Northwest Hills, especially for small towns that generally do not have a lot of staff.”
— Gordon Ridgway, Cornwall First Selectman
Cornwall First Selectman Gordon Ridgway stated his belief that “it is in the public interest to try to keep some public option for our trash disposal in the Northwest Hills, especially for small towns that generally do not have a lot of staff.” He echoed Rand’s comments that the towns thought they had two years to work out a solution. He asked for some time and cooperation to work out an equitable solution that ideally is in the public interest.
New Hartford First Selectman Dan Jerram, chairman of NHCOG, noted that “all 21 towns in our council voted in favor of pursuing the Torrington Transfer Station to maintain it as a public option because they thought it was important for the long-term future.”
Goshen First Selectman Todd Carusillo stated, “the towns have been working on transitioning the transfer station to the towns for the last few months, after learning the time frame had been shortened from 2027 to 2025. I am concerned about the potential for one company coming in and creating a monopoly by buying all the transfer stations in the region. This would result in the towns losing control over solid waste tip fees.”
David Barger, first selectman of Falls Village, added, “Transitioning the Torrington Transfer Station to the towns is keeping in line with Governor Lamont’s plan to regionalize services across the state.”
Winsted/Winchester is among the NHCOG towns that has opted to sign with a private hauler rather than wait for a public solution.
Paul Harrington, town manager of Winchester, explained, “While we’re making progress in developing regional waste solutions, we must ensure that any long-term arrangement is both financially sustainable and operationally efficient. Waste collection is an essential weekly service that must continue uninterrupted, but it needs to be delivered in the most cost-effective manner possible, especially given the constraints of municipal budgets.”
Jennifer Heaton Jones, executive director of the Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority, a solid waste/recycling authority in Western Connecticut, weighed in, “It is hard to form a regional waste authority. The Northwest Hills geographically are difficult transportation wise; your resources are very different than other parts of the state. So, to create a regional authority to leverage contracts is very different than other regions in Connecticut.”
Heaton-Jones added, “We as a state need to really reconsider how we look at the MSW. We could reduce the amount of waste that we are producing and going to out-of-state landfills. We can consider how we are taking food waste out of the waste stream. Through programs, through better education.”
Food waste represents 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 58% of methane emissions from landfills come from food waste.
In summation, Rand said, “You know, I think there is a hope that we can get the Torrington Transfer Station and work together at least for the next couple of years to fulfill our contract with MIRA till July 2027. There’s a common theme: we would like to preserve some public type of entity to manage our garbage, and that’s pretty simple. We also need to be aware of the amount of waste we are creating, and we need to find ways to make less of it. That’s just a very simple statement.Whether it’s buying less, producing less, recycling more, composting; we’ve got to get this volume of garbage down.”
All recent deliberations by MIRA-DA and by NHCOG have been done in executive session. Selectman Rand predicts definitive results in the next few weeks as to the status of the Torrington Tranfer Station and the formation of a regional waste authority.
The shuttered former waste-to-energy plant in Hartford was responsible for processing approximately one-third of the state’s solid waste by burning it to generate electricity.
Join The Lakeville Journal for a community celebration, featuring local nonprofits and businesses, festive family fun, great food, and engaging activities.
What to Expect:
See you at the Lakeville Journal Street Fair!
If you have any questions, please email streetfair@lakevillejournal.com
Cobbler n’ Cream
5 to 7 p.m.
Freund’s Farm Market & Bakery | 324 Norfolk Rd.
Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Cocktail Party
5 to 7 p.m.
Douglas Library | 108 Main St.
Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Boot Drive
8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
North Canaan Fire Co. | 4 E. Main St.
3rd Annual Fly-In
8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Triumph Airfield | 547 W. Main St.
Canaan Railroad Station Museum
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Canaan Union Station
New England Accordion Connection
9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Canaan Union Station
Canaan Carnival
3 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Berkshire Resilience Brass Band
5 to 8 p.m.
Canaan Union Station
Barbecued Chicken Dinner
5 to 7 p.m.
St. Martin of Tours | 4 Main St.
Canaan Fireman’s parade
6 p.m.
Rosa setigera is a native climbing rose whose simple flowers allow bees to easily collect pollen.
After moving to West Cornwall in 2012, we were given a thoughtful housewarming gift: the 1997 edition of “Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs.” We were told the encyclopedic volume was the definitive gardener’s reference guide — a fact I already knew, having purchased one several months earlier at the recommendation of a gardener I admire.
At the time, we were in the thick of winter invasive removal, and I enjoyed reading and dreaming about the trees and shrubs I could plant to fill in the bare spots where the bittersweet, barberry, multiflora rose and other invasive plants had been.Years later, I purchased the 2011 edition, updated and inclusive of plants for warm climates.
On the cover of the new edition, a quote from Adrian Higgins of The Washington Post boasts, “Michael Dirr is the oracle of ornamental horticulture. I trust his judgements implicitly.”I heartily disagree with Mr. Higgins:I blame this book — and my poor use of it — for some of my worst tree and shrub choices.
I realize some readers might find this declaration inflammatory. The book still occupies a place of high regard among experienced and novice gardeners alike, so please allow me to explain.
In addition to giving the reader his opinion on the aesthetic worthiness of the woody plants included in the book, Mr. Dirr makes good on the book’s title with a review of each species’ hardiness. What makes a tree hardy?It thrives in its intended site, resisting disease with leaves and bark not readily eaten by insects and other critters.
Non-native plants make up the majority of the recommended hardy plants in the book.And here is why:Native trees and shrubs are, by evolution’s design, food source and host to our native fauna — critters large and small. There is no substitute equal to the fauna’s co-evolved flora.A native caterpillar cannot eat a kousa dogwood leaf, as it has not evolved to digest it.Non-native plants seemingly have the advantage if the lens we look through values pristine, uneaten leaves.
In the days when there were sufficient thriving ecosystems to maintain local habitats, a non-native specimen tree here and there was just fine.But where we live in Northwest Connecticut, our woods, meadows, marshes and other natural areas have, for a couple of decades, been severely compromised by invasives that have almost entirely removed the food sources for native insects. It is up to us — now — to plant native plants to save the food chain.Without insects, not only will native animals die, but human food sources will also be at risk.
The security of our food pipeline seems a worthy exchange for some caterpillar-eaten leaves — and to be clear, we’re not talking about non-native infestations such as spongy moth, but rather native caterpillars, which are the singular food source for nesting birds.
My issue is that, in being a trusted source for plant selection, Dirr’s book should give equal — if not prioritized — space to information on ecological impact.For example, it would be good to know when selecting a tree, that a native oak provides food and other ecosystem services to more than 400 native animal species, while a native tulip poplar supports fewer than 30 — though that includes the Eastern tiger swallowtail. Including information on the birds and insects attracted to a given plant would enable reader to weigh these factors in choosing what to grow.But this information is not mentioned at all.
Dirr makes no mention of the role some of these plants have played in the degradation of our natural areas — an omission that is highly relevant, as many of the plants featured in his book are, in fact, invasive culprits. Plants like barberry, porcelain berry and tree of heaven are showcased for consideration alongside native plants without recognition of the devastating infestations they can manifest. Tree of Heaven is now responsible for hosting the spotted lanternfly, which is devastating crops.
Similarly Euonymous alatus (winged euonymous) and Actinidia arguta (hardy kiwi) — two highly invasive plants touted in the book — have been banned or are close to being banned for sale from nurseries in the state of Massachusetts. To his credit, Dirr does point out the invasive nature of Ligustrum sinense (Chinese privet), calling it “a terrible and devastating escapee that terrorizes floodplains, fencerows and even open fields, reducing native vegetation to rubble.” Yet Japanese honeysuckle gets an understated warning, with Dirr describing this massively invasive shrub as “bullying their way into understory and open areas.”
The latest edition of Dirr’s book devotes seven pages of copy and photos to various Berberis species, about which Dirr waxes poetic. He notes the addition of “30 new cultivars” in the latest revision and complains that “this species is under assault for its aggressive invasive nature.” He refers to Berberis thunbergii — Japanese barberry, the most invasive of them all — as “the species of major importance in garden commerce.” This plant has already been outlawed for sale in New York, Pennsylvania, New Hamphsire and Maine.A few weeks ago, a bill was passed in Connecticut recognizing the harm of a broad group of invasive plants. Under this new legislation, barberry will be phased out from sale or transport by October 2028.
In understating the invasive nature of many non-natives and de-prioritizing the importance of native species, Dirr’s widely used reference may be partly responsible for many a devastated woodland, forest, meadow and marsh in New England — if not across the U.S.Certainly, the evolution of species, and scientific knowledge about the environment, is changing faster than new editions of books can be printed. I can only hope that if a new edition of Mr. Dirr’s reference book is in the works that it will account for this criteria we now know to be vital in plant selection.
Which brings me back to that quote on the cover from The Washington Post and the larger issue it suggests:Should “ornamental horticulture” get a pass when it comes to ecological survival?I think we can agree — it should not.The consequences are simply too destructive.
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
Foxtrot Farm & Flowers’ historic barn space during UAW’s 2024 exhibition entitled “Unruly Edges.”
Art lovers, mark your calendars. The sixth edition of Upstate Art Weekend (UAW) returns July 17 to 21, with an exciting lineup of exhibitions and events celebrating the cultural vibrancy of the region. Spanning eight counties and over 130 venues, UAW invites residents and visitors alike to explore the Hudson Valley’s thriving creative communities.
Here’s a preview of four must-see exhibitions in the area:
1. Wassaic Project (37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic)
“So It Goes” is a powerful group exhibition curated by Eve Biddle, Bowie Zunino, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and Will Hutnick. The title, drawn from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” signals a reckoning with how we process the horrors of the world. Through play, reflection, and immersive scale, 43 artists respond with urgency and imagination. Installations can be seen throughout the town of Wassaic at Maxon Mills, Gridley Chapel, and Luther Barn, each space transformed by this deeply thoughtful show.
2. Foxtrot Farm & Flowers (6862 Route 82, Stanfordville)
“Queer Bestiary,” a group show curated by Charlotte Woolf, is inspired by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian’s book “Forest Euphoria.” The exhibition investigates queer ecology and human relationship to land through the work of 10 artists using painting, sculpture, textiles, and photography. The exhibit is accompanied by a variety of interactive experiences including tattoo pop-ups, karaoke, book readings, and pick-your-own flowers.
3. ChaShaMa North/ChaNorth (2600 Route 199, Pine Plains)
ChaShaMa North (ChaNorth) will have open studios all weekend and has partnered with Paradice Palase, a platform for emerging artists, to mount a site-specific sculpture exhibition featuring 20 artists entitled “Alone, You Are Heard.” On Saturday evening, July 19, stop by for Weird Music Night for an audio-visual synthesis of experimental music, performance art, and unexpected happenings. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience an eclectic lineup of acts that redefine the boundaries of performance.
4. Millbrook Arts Project(3 Friendly Lane, Millbrook)
The Millbrook Arts Project is hosting a curated exhibit entitled “Generated Utility” at the newly renovated gallery at the village library. The exhibit will feature the work of artists Natalie Beall and Kathy Greenwood. Additionally, visitors will have access to 12 open artists studios across town. The weekend culminates in a free outdoor concert on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. at the Millbrook Bandshell. Enjoy the Indie-Folk sounds of Strawberry Runners and She Keeps Bees.
For more information and a complete list of participating artists and locations, visit: upstateartweekend.org