WIN Waste Saugus
Ash Dump & Incinerator
The WIN Waste Saugus incinerator and ash dump is located in the Rumney Marsh, a designated Area of Critical Environmental Concern. This outdated facility incinerates trash from over ten towns and cities. The Saugus incinerator is the oldest one of its kind in the country. It has experienced numerous fires, spills, noise issues, and malfunctions. Due to its age, it is underperforming and has to buy credits from other facilities to offset its excessive NOx emissions.
Burning trash creates air emissions and ash with high levels of toxic elements like arsenic, lead, dioxin, and mercury. Incinerator ash is associated with higher cancer rates, reproductive issues, learning disabilities, impaired immune systems, and other health problems.
The air emissions from the incinerator impact the air quality of surrounding communities such as Saugus, Lynn and Revere. While the facility is located in Saugus, pollution doesn’t know town or city boundaries. By burning waste, chemicals, and pollutants such as particulate matter, lead, mercury, PFAS, and dioxins, enter the air, water, and food supply near the incinerator. Our communities are overburdened by incinerator pollution. Three of the state’s five remaining incinerators are in Essex County.
The ash created by the Saugus incinerator is deposited into an adjacent unlined ash dump. This dump dates back to the 1940s when it was used as a municipal landfill. When the incinerator was built in 1975, the company began dumping ash on top of the trash. Therefore, this landfill does not have a liner. The ash dump was never meant to be permanent. In fact, it was originally slated to close in 1996. Luckily, MA DEP says the ash dump will be capped and closed once it reaches 50 feet, which is expected to happen in the next 2 or 3 years. However, WIN Waste and Saugus politicians are lobbying to change state laws to allow for continued expansion for another 20 to 25 years. Instead of pushing for an expansion, the town of Saugus should create a closure committee to prepare for the expected transition within the next few years.
In a recent class action lawsuit, more than 50 neighbors alleged that the company was spewing noxious odors, particulates, and dust onto their homes. Furthermore, on October 24, 2022, engineering Professor Scott Hersey from Olin College presented two years of evidence from a study done at Gibson Park using air quality monitors. The study found that pollutants are not only coming from the incinerator, but ash is blowing over from the uncovered ash dump.
Source: At 1:11:45
https://vimeo.com/channels/1388027/764261893
Additionally, WIN Saugus uses contaminated dirt as a temporary covering on portions of the landfill. This dirt is known to have lead, dioxin, cadmium, mercury, PCBs, and other dangerous toxins. The ash and dirty dirt sit in an unlined dump in the middle of tidal salt marshes.
Source:
Mass DEP Policy to Reuse Contaminated Soil at Landfills
(Table 1, page 7)
The dump will be increasingly impacted by sea level rise and storm surges due to climate change. It is located in a flood zone and the surrounding communities have already flooded on many occasions. What will happen to the unlined and uncovered ash dump when a severe storm hits it and further empties its contents all over our communities?
The contaminated liquid known as leachate that WIN pumps from their ash dump is sent to the Lynn water and sewer treatment facility. After treatment, it is discharged into Lynn Harbor. Many residents are concerned that the water treatment plant does not have the technology to fully remove heavy metals and other toxic elements from the leachate.
“Pumped leachate is either controlled, monitored, and discharged to sewer by WSI under a permit issued by the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission or reused at the WTE facility.”
“The Lynn Water and Sewer Commission (LWSC) is permitted to discharge treated effluent to Lynn Harbor after treatment…”
Source:
Mass DEP Final Decision
(p. 4 of Mass DEP Response to Comments Attachment 2, dated April 19, 2018)
(Comment 20 from Page 9 of Mass DEP Response to Comments Attachment 2, dated April 19, 2018)
While trash does need to go somewhere, so much of what ends up in the ash landfill should have never made it to the facility in the first place, including food waste, cardboard, and metal recyclables. With the right systems in place, 70% of the incinerated waste could be either composted or recycled. Massachusetts needs to take concrete steps toward a zero-waste future. We need real, sustainable, long-term solutions to the trash problem. Additionally, let’s hold this company to a much higher standard with regard to its underperforming incinerator while ensuring the closure and capping of the ash dump.
