Also on today’s menu:
Swallowed By Storm Drains
From Our Readers: Casella Is Not Listening
Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut says the coronavirus pandemic in general and remote learning in particular were responsible for the drop in statewide assessment test scores last spring.
Students on average performed well below past tests for proficiency in math, less so in English, and just slightly below in science. Students in wealthier school districts performed as well or better than they did in the past, while students in large cities and property-poor districts did not come close to past results, reports Garry Rayno.
Overall math proficiency scores dropped from 48 percent of students in 2019 to 38 percent in 2021. (There were no assessment tests in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic.) Reading proficiency dropped from 52 percent in 2019 to 48 percent in 2021; while science proficiency dropped from 39 percent to 37 percent.
Swallowed By Storm Drains
There’s no official count of how many Americans get pulled into storm drains, pipes, or culverts during floods, but ProPublica identified 35 such cases since 2015 using news accounts and court records. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, an arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has recommended steps to prevent such cases, but it has no authority to compel cities or counties to act on that advice.
The government issued two reports on storm drain hazards after the near-identical deaths of firefighters during flood rescues, in 2000 and 2015. The first report did not reach the officials who could have prevented the second death.
Despite records of horrific cases that span the country and stretch back decades, federal, state, and local government agencies have failed to take simple steps to prevent such tragedies from happening. Officials are not surveying the nation’s aging stormwater drainage systems, which are being taxed beyond capacity by record downpours, to flag openings that could pose a hazard and install grates to prevent people from being sucked in.
From Our Readers: Casella Is Not Listening
Recently, we've heard the following incredulous statements from representatives of Casella Waste Systems:
From Casella’s NCES Landfill manager Kevin Roy, December 8, at the Pemi-Baker Solid Waste District (PBSWD) meeting: “It seems today there are a lot of people who know more about waste than we do, but we deal with it every day. We know what the issues are, we have tried to solve the issues, and I think together we can continue to move forward … But we have to literally pay attention. There are people who really do not know our industry like we do.” Meanwhile, just this year alone, his NCES Landfill was cited for FOUR permit violations in July by NHDES, for placing waste outside of permitted areas, AND, also in July, earned a “Letter of Deficiency” from NHDES for “spilling” 154,000 gallons of landfill leachate, unbeknownst to Mr. Roy, for nearly 48 hours, from May 1-3. Mr. Roy seems to have a problem with a concerned public “paying attention” to his company’s operational and engineering inadequacies at this dangerous, industrial facility in our collective backyard, on the Ammonoosuc River, just upstream of Littleton.
Two days later, on December 10, CEO John Casella wrote, in an open letter to the residents of Dalton, (the very same people who have voted for zoning TWICE, whose will his company has dismissed by refusing to seek local zoning approval for his project): “This decision (to withdraw the wetlands permit application) will also allow us to take into consideration the public opinion that we have gathered, and will continue to solicit, throughout this process.” If Mr. Casella has actually taken the time to listen to public testimony during the July wetlands permit public hearing, read thru the hundreds of pages of written comments submitted to the public record at NHDES, tuned into the hearings and read the public testimony supporting the proposed HB177 legislation, or even taken the time to read just a portion of the voluminous news stories printed about his controversial and dangerous development project next to a lake and state park, it does not show based on his tone-deaf statement. For two years now, public opposition against this project has been OVERWHELMING, with property owners, citizens, town selectboards, conservation commissions, state legislators, wetlands scientists, and environmental organizations from across the state, all weighing in AGAINST this project. How much public opinion and input does Mr. Casella need to gather before realizing that no one thinks his development project is a good idea?
Keep in mind, too, Casella’s expert engineers have been working on this new, unneeded landfill project for at least three years, only to have NHDES admit that they could not approve the wetlands permit application, as submitted, and instead, requested an “amended” application in September, and for only just the first phase of the project. Yet Casella’s crack team of engineering experts could not meet the agreed-upon deadline of December 15, thus the withdrawal announcement by Mr. Casella on December 10. Does this latest turn of bumbling events instill any sense of confidence in Casella’s overall abilities?
It is simply incredulous to think that these two men actually BELIEVE their own statements, as both serve to highlight the deeply-rooted arrogance of this very controversial company. Remember Casella engineering manager Joe Gay’s statement at the July wetlands permit public hearing, relative to public concerns about water contamination of Forest Lake? “Can't Happen” was his response, drawing jeers from the very large audience. This completely-dismissive attitude of public opinion and concern by this company now, during what could be construed as the “dating or courting” stage, speaks volumes relative to what’s to come IF they ever get a foot in the door in Dalton (and Bethlehem as Douglas Drive in in that town). As we’ve seen repeatedly in the numerous towns and cities that have played host to Casella’s landfill operations, this company will do whatever it wants to do to ensure corporate profitability, and the community be damned if they get in the way.
So again, I ask, “what part of NO does Mr. Casella not understand?” The North Country does not want this dangerous industrial development, designed to be the host for generations of out-of-state trash. Meanwhile, as Mr. Roy informed the members of the PBSWD, the NCES Landfill is running out of capacity and has greatly reduced intake as a result. Their contract with towns in the Pemi-Baker Solid Waste District will expire in April of 2023. Thus, the time is NOW for those towns, like Littleton, Easton, Franconia, Sugar Hill, Landaff, Lisbon, and Lyman, to begin reaching out to the AVRRDD Mt. Carberry Landfill, a bit farther away, just outside of Berlin, as well as independent haulers, to plan for their post-Casella waste disposal needs, because as you can see, the Dalton landfill project simply ain’t going to happen for Casella and they have worn out their welcome in Bethlehem.
Sorry, Mr. Casella, it looks like Krampus, not Santa Claus, will be visiting corporate HQ in Rutland this year.
Jon Swan
Dalton
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