As Williamstown prepares for annual town meeting on May 22nd, debate has emerged over a proposal that would see the town’s wastewater plant utilized by contractor Casella to process other communities’ sludge to make fertilizer.
After Monday night’s vote, it’s the lone fiscal article that will appear on the meeting warrant without the select board’s recommendation.
“I fall into this camp of sometimes feeling that I'm so lucky to live in Williamstown," said
Williamstown resident Laura Bentz. "When there was a huge article in The New York Times about cows dying in Texas and people getting really sick in Texas, and they traced it to this composted sludge being put on farms. I was horrified, and I was so lucky that I lived in a place where we don't have that problem.”
Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a warning that agricultural fertilizer created from sewage can cause cancers by introducing PFAS chemicals into the food system.
Also known as "forever chemicals," PFAS compounds can also harm the immune system and negatively impact child development.
Bentz expressed dismay that Williamstown’s leaders might endorse the plan.
“Are people aware that PFAS cause cancer, the compost that has PFAS in it that, it's carcinogenic," she asked. "I mean, are you- Do people realize this?”
The Hoosac Water Quality District that operates the town’s wastewater plant serves both Williamstown and neighboring North Adams- which, as the larger community, shoulders the heavier side of the roughly 70-30 split for its funding.
A Williamstown representative on the district’s board of commissioners explained how the plan to lower rates by bringing in outside sludge emerged.
“If we're not selling compost, we have to get it trucked out. I'm going to go get quotes for that, and I'm not sure you mentioned these numbers, Hugh, but there was $600,000 to $750,000 impact on the district on a $2 million budget. So that's a 30% increase that, if that got put in place now for this year, that's a significant spike for the two towns," said Russ Howard. “And we're going down a path that that might have to be incurred, how would that be incurred- Then we got this other option that would allow us to kind of smooth that potential rate increase out over maybe a two- or three-year period.”
As at the select board’s last meeting in March, member Stephanie Boyd maintained that Williamstown should avoid taking part in any initiative that would further harm the environment.
“Unfortunately, wastewater treatment plants don't treat for PFAS," she said. "They don't treat for heavy metals. So, whatever goes into that plant comes out in the outfall. Some of it goes out in the water that is clean, which it's not, and some of it will be in the sludge. We have PFAS in our sludge here, and we expel PFAS into the river, and so there will be more PFAS coming into the community.”
A bill before the Massachusetts legislature titled “An Act Protecting our Soil and Farms from PFAS Contamination” would make fertilizer derived from sludge illegal in the commonwealth.
Another resident, Wendy Penner, tied in the current national moment to Williamstown’s struggle between saving money and protecting nature.
“One thing that terrifies me right now is with our current administration in Washington, they're throwing out all of our environmental regulations, we're going to probably see these PFAS, these efforts to limit PFAS in our water go away or be raised," she said. "And to me, that doesn't mean that's an opportunity for us to raise our levels and have less cost- To me, it's how can we challenge ourselves to just do the best that we can in terms of our own ethics as a town?”
In a final move, the Williamstown select board chose to not recommend the water rate plan that would rely on sludge processing on the town meeting warrant in a 2-3 decision.
