Neighbors, Workers Clash On Trash

Crystal Ayala looked out from her Fairmont Avenue home and warned of odors, rodents, and plummeting property values if the city allows an Annex transfer station to collect suburban wet trash.

Lauryn Kearney looked at that same plant — and described it as one of the city’s ​“cleanest facilities,” a dedicated employer that deserves to expand.

Those two New Haveners gave those disparate testimonies Wednesday night during the latest marathon City Plan Commission public hearing regarding Murphy Road Recycling’s planned operational expansion at 19 Wheeler St.

The four-and-a-half-hour virtual meeting took place online via the Zoom videoconferencing platform.

The subject of debate Wednesday night was Murphy’s site plan, coastal site plan, and special permit applications to allow the current waste-transfer station on the Quinnipiac River to take in up to 500 tons per day of so-called ​“putrescible” municipal solid waste (MSW) — aka, ​“wet” household garbage — from surrounding towns.

As at last month’s commission meeting, proponents of the expansion praised the local solid waste facility as an economic boon for the city, while critics lambasted it for being a bad neighbor and an environmental hazard.

Unlike at that hearing, these arguments were made not by attorneys and specially hired engineers and consultants on both sides, but rather by members of the public — and a few city officials — weighing in with their own passionate takes.

The overwhelming majority of written and spoken public testimony Wednesday night came out in opposition to the expansion.

“We have an ongoing health and environmental problem that’s happening in this neighborhood right now,” said Fair Haven Heights resident Chris Ozyck, who is one of a half-dozen local ​“intervenors” protesting Murphy’s expansion plans. Allowing for wet trash to come in in addition to 19 Wheeler St.‘s current processing of construction debris, dry trash, and recyclables ​“is just going to exacerbate” malodors, truck traffic, asthma rates, and rodent infestations of nearby homes.

Fellow intervenor and Quinnipiac River Fund representative Nancy Alderman agreed.

“This particular site on the Quinnipiac River that overlooks New Haven could be a lovely site if it was put to good use,” she said. ​“Putting seven towns’ worth of garbage on it and spraying the heap with a scented mist is hardly a good use. It is time we stop trashing our waterfronts.”

In video testimony Ozyck recorded after knocking doors in the Annex neighborhood, Ayala — who owns an adjacent house on Fairmont Avenue — called for the commissioners to turn down Murphy’s application.

“No, I don’t want that behind my home,” she said. ​“No, I don’t want any more harm to be put towards my kids that is out of my control with the pollution. And no, I don’t want to lose any value to my home because of a property that’s going to be polluting behind my home.”

A handful of New Haven residents who work at Murphy Road Recycling and All American Waste, the trash-hauling company that shares the same 15-acre site with the solid waste facility, took up the mantle of defending the company and promoting the expansion.

The solid waste facility has for years pushed to expand its operations on its current 15-acre site adjacent to the Quinnipiac River. Each step of the way has earned vocal pushback from neighbors, local environmentalists, and city elected officials.

That included Kearney, a dispatcher for All American Waste. She said she has lived in the city since 1997, graduated from Hillhouse High School, and has worked for the trash hauling company since 2007.

“I come here every day. I work here every day. I don’t smell anything,” she said. ​“For people to say that we’re not cleanly, that we’re not clean, it’s just astounding to me. This company honors its employees. They stick by their employees. And expanding will only open more opportunities” for local hires.

The commissioners unanimously voted in support of continuing the public hearing to accept more public testimony later this month, and to hear a formal rebuttal from Murphy Road Recycling’s attorney on Jan. 20.

Click here, here, here, and here for previous stories about the Wheeler Street transfer station.

Critics: Wary Of Bad Smells, Worse Traffic, More Rats

Most of Wednesday night’s hearing featured presentations from local critics — including Wooster Square Alder Ellen Cupo, who represents the section of the Annex that includes the waste-transfer plan; and city economic development deputy Steve Fontana — warning of the environmental harms posed by the expansion and calling for the commission to reject the applications.

“Every aspect of this application violates both the spirit and the letter of the New Haven zoning regulations and the basic principles of environmental justice, which are really codified directly into the commission’s regulations,” said Save the Sound attorney Roger Reynolds, who is one of the case’s intervenors.

“To allow this to go forward would be a vast abuse of discretion and would be looked on very poorly by the community as well as the courts.”

Reynolds stressed that, per the presentation of Murphy Road Recycling’s managers and attorneys, the waste-transfer station is currently operating at around 40 to 50 percent of its allowable capacity. Even though the allowance of wet trash would not technically raise the total allowable tonnage that the facility can process every day, it will de facto increase the amount of trash coming in, and the number of trucks visiting the site each day, by boosting actual business at the Annex site.

“This commission must look at the real world, and it must look at the actual impact on the neighborhood,” he said.

Reynolds pointed to Section 46 (h) (1) of the city’s code of ordinances, which states that ​“it is the policy of the City that the burden of fulfilling the need for solid waste facilities shall not fall disproportionately on any community.”

He said the expansion would increase traffic at the site, further degrade the neighborhood’s air quality, exacerbate malodors and rodent problems, endanger the river with new contaminated runoff, and negatively affect nearby property values. ​“Protect your residents and do not allow this blatantly illegal and violative use to be sited in this already overburdened neighborhood.”

Local attorney Marjorie Shansky, another intervenor, agreed. ​“I think it can safely be said that there may never have been an application less eligible for approval by this commission that the one pending before you this evening,” she said. ​“The health and safety of the citizens and of the Quinnipiac River and ultimately of the Long Island Sound trump the economic interests of the applicant.”

Neighbors and other city residents spoke out against the potentially deleterious effects of the current facility’s expansion.

“My daughter is 9 months old,” said Fulton Street resident Robert Farrow (pictured above). ​“I don’t want to have my daughter around a smell that can be toxic and be dangerous to her health.” He added that his mother has had multiple brain surgeries and heart surgeries and also suffers from asthma.

“This problem could bring about rats, rodents,” he said about the proposed taking in of wet trash. ​“These things can carry diseases that I don’t want to have living around my household.”

City Environmental Advisory Council Chair Laura Cahn said that ​“the Wheeler Street transfer station already smells of garbage,” and if wet trash is added to the current mix, those odors will only get worse. ​“Garbage and chemical deodorizers both have a detrimental impact” on the environment, she said in opposition to Murphy’s plans.

Fairmont Avenue resident Terry Saunders said she lives just 200 feet away from the current facility. She said she hears heavy equipment and machinery running at 2:30 a.m., and that the current ​“noise and light pollution is just horrible down here.” She said the wind blows from the direction of the water and brings with it ​“a very pungent smell. I have grandchildren I don’t want playing in the backyard” because of that smell, she said.

“This neighborhood is the most polluted area in the city,” added Cupo. ​“My residents should not be further burdened by housing a trash transfer station in their backyards.”

Supporters

Nearly half a dozen current employees weighed in with ardent support for their employer’s plan.

“I have been working for a long time at this company, and during this time I have not seen anything that is not correct,” said Fair Haven resident and All American Waste mechanic Jose Calle (pictured), whose testimony was translated from Spanish to English by a city-hired interpreter.

“This company has always been concerned about their employees. And I believe that all the other co-workers, that we are all very satisfied. We are there because of their effort and because of the way we are treated. It’s really good.”

Fellow Fair Haven resident and All American Waste driver Zack Hyman agreed. ​“I am for the expansion because it creates jobs,” he said.

Hyman said he has worked at the company for five years. ​“They treat me awesome,” he said. ​“And I’ve never seen a mess as far as trash on the ground.”

Westville resident and All American Waste driver Frank Warrecke described the workplace environment at 19 Wheeler St. as ​“like family.”

“We do our job for the City of New Haven,” he said. ​“We do our job for our customers. We do our job for All American Waste. I think by expanding, it’s only going to enhance business in the area. It’s only going to expand employment opportunities.”

As the hearing approached its 10 p.m. limit, Commission Chair Ed Mattison noted that the ongoing debate about the Wheeler Street transfer station remains, well, ongoing.

“This feels like one chapter in a book,” he said about Wednesday night’s hours-long public hearing. That book is slated to resume later this month and in January, as the commissioners continue to receive public testimony and then hear Murphy Road Recycling’s closing argument before making a final decision on the applications.