The news from the Free Press today was a shocker:
Beset on all sides by regulatory challenges, the beleaguered Intervale Center announced Wednesday night it will close its majorbig [sic] composting operation sometime the coming months.
The facility cannot afford to answer pollution concerns and obtain recently mandated permits, Perkins said.
At the Chittenden Solid Waste District, General Manager Tom Moreau said the district will urgently seek alternatives.
The Intervale has been a crown jewel, not just of Burlington, but of Vermont. Find another city which has increased its agricultural base in the last two decades. The reclaimed dump of a site has not only been a thriving economic engine and community-enhancer, it has maintained a uniquely successful, large scale composting operation, diverting tons of waste in Chittenden and neighborig counties that was otherwise destined for landfills, and generating agricultural products in the process. It is something I've heard Democrats, Progressives, Republicans and Independents speak of with pride.
But not all Republicans. A couple in particular became fixated on the Democrats and Progressives involved in its operation - particularly Democratic Speaker of the House Gaye Symington and Progressive Representative (and organic farmer) David Zuckerman. When it came out that runoff from the composting operation was not up to specs, Governor Jim Douglas and his attack dog, Agency of Natural Resources Secretary George Crombie could hardly maintain their glee. They tied the discharge violation around Zuckerman's and Symington's necks as tightly as they could, despite a continuing history of ignoring meaningful permit violations that don't have high profile Dems and Progs associated with them.
But the problem was that they were dealing with environmentalists, and unlike their GOP business buddies who might mutter and fume about having to cowtow to the tree-huggers, the folks at the Intervale were fully and humbly prepared to comply - providing, in the process, an example to others.
That would never do for Douglas. So what does he have Crombie do? Revoke the Intervale's classification as a farm, retroactively making it subject to all the Act 250 provisions it had never built into its business plan. The new, unexpected burdens - particularly ones relating to concerns about possible siting on archeological sites - suddenly dumped never-accounted for costs that, with an unfriendly agency, would clearly go well into six figures.
If you're still entertaining the notion that this wasn't a political hit job, consider the rumor in circulation that I was able to confirm with a source close enough to know. In a conversation with the Intervale Director, Crombie openly gloated that he had the Intervale "in a noose" and wasn't about to let go.
That's right. He actually said "in a noose."
So an operation that has diverted tens of thousands of tons of solid waste from landfills and kept nearly a million gallons of liquid waste from wastewater treatment facilities over the last two decades, serving as a model of urban agriculture and green economic success is closing its doors.
And all for one reason, and one reason only: pure, vindictive, political thuggery. Congratulations, Jim. You win. |
