Principal Marc Goldstein (Boston) was quoted in two articles on plans for a trash transfer station in Holbrook, MA. The articles, "In Holbrook, the Trash Talking Just Got Louder" from the Boston Globe and "The Smell and the Fury" from Boston Magazine, both cover the same topic: the discussion surrounding plans for the Holbrook trash transfer station.

The station would be operated by TLA-Holbrook LLC, represented by Beveridge & Diamond, and would be built on 14.85 acres and would not accept hazardous waste or construction and demolition debris. Trucks would bring their trash loads to the station to be dumped in an enclosed building and then put on trains or trucks to be taken to a landfill elsewhere. TLA-Holbrook is currently working on a more refined site design after winning approvals from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Holbrook Board of Health. 

The Holbrook community is concerned about the smell, though Marc states that the facility would not be in breach of the state standard and likely would not exceed the smell from dumpsters of nearby shops. Distinct from the Covanta Transfer Station near Braintree, MA that has left a negative impression on the community, the garbage handling at Holbrook would happen indoors.

Marc notes that there will always be vocal opposition when trash storage solutions are proposed near people's homes, but "there is a looming crisis for where trash will go in Massachusetts and transfer stations are a piece of the solution to that problem."

Other opposition from the community includes concerns the plant's proximity to contaminated land, but Marc explains that the company will pay to excavate the contaminated soil and place it under the floor slab of the garbage tipping facility, capping the contamination and separating it from human contact or rainwater displacement, in a remediation that will be overseen by the Department of Environmental Protection.

The plant's construction will "not affect existing or potential impacts of the Baird & McGuire Superfund Site" nearby, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Click here and here for the full articles.