Former Southington Landfill Close to Having ‘New Tenant’

When the council next meets on June 10, Southington Town Council members will determine whether to move forward with a lease agreement that would provide activity and business at the former landfill site along DePaolo Drive – and barring objections from the public, the new deal seems to be a given.

The town has reached a tentative agreement with Supreme Forest Products, a Harwinton-based company that specializes in land clearing, chipping and grinding of non-hazardous materials, and the resale of products, for lease of the property.

“This is homerun for town,” said Council Chairman John Dobbins. “It’s 19-acres that we are not using. The company will bring 15 to 20 new employees to the community, doing leaf mulching services that are saving the town 32,000 dollars per year.”

Under the terms of the lease, the company would be responsible for all costs to maintain the capped landfill and would be banned from using any hazardous waste materials. In exchange for the property, they would also be responsible for any personal property and equipment taxes associated with operating the business.

To see the complete lease agreement, view the PDF above.

To sweeten the deal, the new site would likely serve as a storage place for the wholesale of ground asphalt that would help provide a storage space for materials that would be ground off-site by contractors working on the milling and repaving of Southington’s roads before being brought to the property.

George Andrews, an engineer with Loureiro Engineering Associates, said the work and storage would be done in phases to minimize impact including site views, with the highest piles reaching 35 feet at their maximum. The project would involve a maximum of 24 truckloads per hour, 12 entering and 12 leaving, with a likelihood of eight trucks per hour most of the time.

“There will be use of a filter saw and mesh tubes filled with mulch or woodchips,” Andrews said during a public hearing in April before the Southington Planning and Zoning Commission. “The entire stockpile will be surrounded to mitigate erosion of any materials to adjacent surfaces.”

“Construction activities are not all happen at same time. They will be extended out over extended period,” said Attorney William Tracey, representing the company.

But the business may be just the start of a long-range plan for Supreme Industries that could prove even more beneficial in the long-term. The latest changes may be part of a larger plan that could bring a fully functional organic pyrolysis plant to Southington.
 
Mark Vigneault, a Southington resident and vice-president of Supreme Industries, said last year that the plant would be just the second in the state and use exciting new technology that could very well be the wave of the future.

“As a Southington resident, I would love my town to be ahead of curve both in the state and the nation in terms of green wood waste and source separated organics,” Vigneault said. “The plant would be only the second in the state.”

A public hearing will take place on June 10 at the Southington Municipal Center, 200 N. Main St., at 7 p.m.

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