Fall River Dumping Waste at Site-Ready in Tiverton

The City of Fall River is currently trucking all collected yard waste and single-stream recyclables to Site-Ready Materials on Eagleville Road, according to a Sakonnet Times article.

Site-Ready owner Marcello Louro submitted an application for the expansion of their facility located at 322 Eagleville Road in April of 2012. The renovations would increase recycling and other waste materials processing capabilities at the transfer station. 

According to the Sakonnet Times article, Fall River trucks approximately 3,000 tons per year of yard waste and between 4,800-6,000 tons of single stream recycling.

It is unclear, after a Jan. 8 Tiverton Planning Board meeting where the Site-Ready application was discussed, whether recycling is a permitted use on the existing site.

No mention is made in the Master Plan Application that Fall River is already dumping yard waste and single stream recycling at the Eagleville Road site for transfer.

The Sakonnet Times reported that Lauro denied that activities on his property were different than when the application was submitted last April.

"Existing conditions change every day, so at the time we didn’t we didn’t have contracts in place," said Lauro in the article. Now we do have some contracts in place, so conditions change, ’cause we’re a business and we have to be able to adapt to different conditions.”

Paper, glass, cardboard, bottles, cans and other recyclables make up the truckloads from Fall River. Single-stream recycled materials are not sorted by residents before they are disposed and hauled to Site-Ready in Tiverton.

From Site-Ready, the recyclables are transferred to a materials recycling facility in Auburn, Massachusetts via trucks operated by L.A.L. Construction, a sister company that shares Site-Ready's Eagleville location.

After more than two hours of discussion on the impacts of increased traffic and activity at Site-Ready Materials, the applicant offered to reduce by 50 percent the amount of materials processed daily. This would reduce the amount of processed waste materials from 1,500 tons to 750 tons daily and call for the addition of 45 trucks per day.

"This is a serious concession on the part of my client," said Eric Brainsky, the Site-Ready lawyer. "This reduction is a significant concession and shows you folks how serious my clients are about this proposal. We would agree to a condition of approval to have a maximum daily capacity of 750 tons per day."

Building Official Gareth Eames informed the board he toured the facility on Nov. 3 and noticed activity related to composting - for which the business may not be properly permitted. The board requested he delve further into the permitting issues and check on the site's licensing for handling recyclables prior to the next meeting on the Site-Ready application.

The planning board took no vote on the matter, citing a need to vet the project under its reduced proposal. Residents who neighbor the Eagleville Road site have been vocal about concerns over pollution and alleged unlicensed activity on the site. The Planning Board will next meet to discuss the application on March 5, 2013 at the Town Hall, 343 Highland Road.