New Hampshire town considers proposed landfill

A report in the Boston Globe portrays residents of a town of about 870 people in New Hampshire as engaged in a sometimes hostile debate as to whether to agree to accept a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill within its borders.

The January article is based on interviews with numerous people who live in Dalton, New Hampshire. Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems has approached at least one land owner and the city’s government in an effort to build a 72-acre landfill in the town. The waste and recycling company desires the site in part because another of its landfills, in nearby Bethlehem, New Hampshire, will only be able to accept MSW for another five years or so.

The story by Bill Donahue portrays Dalton residents with opposing views, with some welcoming the revenue a landfill will bring, and others concerned about environmental impacts (particularly on a nearby recreational lake).

“The placement of a landfill is always a charged issue," Donahue writes in the article. His portrayal of circumstances in Dalton seems to reinforce that notion.