BY JENNIFER COE Staff Writer
Ten years ago , the town of Windsor Locks thought they had settled the issue of Babylon Recycling handling municipal solid waste , but the company’s recent request to alter operations brought out a crowd on Nov . 9 . Residents who live on streets like North Main , Suffield , Seymour and others came to hear a presentation by Babylon representatives on their recent application made to the Department of Environmental Protection ( DEP ) . The application , which is presently under review , would bring their facility up to their maximum operating capacity . It would also change the designation of the facility from a “ volume reduction facility” to a “ solid waste facility” and would open the doors for the location to process up to 250 tons of municipal solid waste , i . e . household garbage .
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Citizens wasted no time in responding to the presentation made by Babylon employees , taking the opportunity to express their general unhappiness with the 10-year-old facility , which is situated right next to a neighborhood of homes .
“ This kind of facility shouldn’t be in anyone’s backyard , ” said Con O’Leary , a nearby resident . “ All of the houses were built before the facility was built here . There’s a tremendous amount of noise . Everyone in the north end of town has heard it . Now they are requesting that this all be increased by 250 tons a day ?”
Other concerns by residents included increased truck traffic , noise , the potential for vermin and odor . According to Anchor Engineering Services representative Mark Zessin , who has done an analysis for Babylon , there could be as many as 29 truck trips of municipal solid waste into the site per day .
“ I have been awakened three times , ” said Seymour Street resident Ryan King . Many others complained of latenight work being done . Babylon representative Jonathon Murray responded to several of the concerns by saying that the noise of the rail cars being coupled occurs later in the day , because “ they come in at night when Amtrak is not running , ” but he insisted that the noise the residents are hearing must be from another nearby business .
Selectman Wawruck disagreed . “ Rail cars aren’t being picked up till 2 : 30 a . m . presently . “ I am further down the road , and I can hear it . ”
Many other neighbors complained about vibrations and concern over the water run off .
“ I haven’t heard of any benefit to Windsor Locks , ” said Wawruck . ”
A short public service announcement video was shown after the hearing which was available for viewing online . “ I just wanted to show the worst possible scenario , ” said its creator , Kevin Brace .
“ We’ll take note of all the concerns and address them going forward , ” said Murray , after the hearing . “ We’ll discuss them with everybody and decide how we’ll go forward . ”
Presently the application is under technical review at the DEP .
I hope all concerned town residents stay on top of this--we need to prevent this expansion from ever happening!
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