Coakley Landfill Update

The EPA provided an update—and a genuine head-shaking moment—Tuesday night at Bethany Church in Greenland on the status of the Coakley Landfill. (See news stories from Seacoast Online and WMUR).

While it was encouraging to hear the EPA Project Manager for the site, Skip Hull, telling area residents that the agency’s work at the site is now focusing on ways to come up with a solution that removes contaminants from the site, it was discouraging and totally perplexing to hear EPA PR flack Kelsey Dumville claim (in the presence of people in the room who have lost family members to cancers that may were likely caused by contaminants at the site) that “The EPA is not a public health agency.”

Her words came as a surprise to anyone who has ever read the first sentence of the EPA’s mission statement: “The mission of the EPA is to protect human health and the environment”. Read NH Safe Water Alliance Mindi Messmer’s post for more.

Meanwhile, as the seemingly unending testing and monitoring cycle at the site continues, the state legislature is now taking a “the buck stops here” approach when it comes to protecting public health.

NH House and Senate conferees have agreed on a final version of HB-494 which recognizes that the contamination at the Coakley Landfill site poses a threat to surrounding communities and requires that the Department of Environmental Services propose a remedy, including design solution, associated costs, and implementation timeline by January 1, 2020. Implementation of the remedy must begin by September 1, 2020 and if these deadlines aren’t met, the attorney general’s office is authorized to take appropriate action. The House and the Senate will likely give final approval to the bill when they meet on Thursday. From there it goes on to the governor for signature.

Thanks to NH Safe Water Alliance Founder Mindi Messmer, Senator Tom Sherman, and my fellow state reps and HB-494 cosponsors Renny Cushing, Dennis Malloy, Debra Altschiller, Mike Edgar, and Pat Bushway for being there last night and for tirelessly advocating for people whose health has been put at risk.