Residents, workers and legislators in the Newmarket Square at the corner of Roxbury, South Boston and the South End district are concerned about a proposed $10 million dollar transfer station called Celtic Recycling in the area at 100 Widett Circle.
Local groups are opposed to the proposed development due to the amount of unanswered questions they have regarding the amount of daily truck traffic, health concerns with the proximity to food processing plants and the effects the facility may have on the residents.
Celtic Recycling are trying to build a state-of-the-art recycling plant where a cold storage warehouse currently sits. The facility would truck in and process 15,000 tons of construction and demolition material a day on sealed trucks according to Sue Sullivan of the Newmarket Square Business Association.
Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson voiced opposition towards the potential project. “This is not the right place for a waste plant,” Jackson said. “When we look at the type of development we need to see in Roxbury and the South End, this does not fall in with what neighbors and members of the community need.”
Jackson echoed concerns over the effect this plant would have on the local economy and health concerns. “I think this project would be disruptive to business, particularly the food processing business in the area. It would add to the issues relative to the extraordinary high rate of asthma in Roxbury, where we already have an asthma rate that’s six times higher than the rate in Massachusetts. These types of plants are not supposed to be opened unless there is no capacity in the area.”
Jackson said he has had contact with direct abutters and community members alike that “do not want to be dumped on.”
“The real issue is that there has been movement at the state level but nothing is moving forward right now locally. I don’t look forward to working on it on a local level. I’d love to hear from people who’re supporting this.”
“We have a ton of questions, none of which we can get answered,” Sue Sullivan, Executive Director of Newmarket Business Association said. “You’ve got a gateway to the city. Why would you put a trash facility there? No one is giving us a good reason why it should go there.”
The building would be within close proximity to the Greater Boston Food Bank.
“There’s 21 food processing businesses in the area with about 750 employees right near the site,” Sullivan said. “We want to know how this plant will be sanitary enough to run in such close proximity. Trash and food don’t mix.”
Local groups have questions about the health hazard that may present themselves as well as noise pollution and air quality issues.
“We already have a high rate of people with asthma in that area,” Sullivan said. “We’re worried about what a plant like this would do those numbers.”
Loraine Downey of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association echoed similar concerns about the proposal. Downey said that the proposal made it to the hands and desks of local politicians, but Celtic and the neighborhood organizations have had little to no contact. Bulletins for public comment meetings were placed in local papers like South Boston Today this time last year. Sixty people attended a community meeting addressing this proposal on July 1, 2014 at Condon School in South Boston, but Downey said this was not satisfactory for locals.
“We don’t know if we’re for or against the project given the amount of missing or conflicting info,” Downey said. “We don’t know enough about the plan. I was upset that Celtic didn’t come to any of us to discuss this.”
The question of neighborhood traffic was a major concern, seeing how about 250 trucks would potentially be driving in and out of the facility every day.
“We have over 300 businesses here, most of them industrial,” Downey said. “There are about 30,000 employees, half of which live in the city. We’re all about job creation, but we’re constantly being barraged by people wanting to put things down here because no one wants them and they can’t have it both ways. We’ve had three methadone clinics, a potential marijuana dispensary and other propositions for facilities no one else wants in their neighborhood.”
Another lingering question involves the potential of a land grab from the MBTA through eminent domain as part of the South Station expansion. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is trying to expand South Station and looked to Newmarket as a possible location for their layover facility. MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said that taking the land through eminent domain is not a part of the T’s current Environmental Impact Report for the South Station Expansion project.
“We weighed in in the beginning steps,” Mark McGonagle, Chief of Staff of Boston City Councilor Bill Linehan said. “We supported the idea of a recycling facility and a green building, but have disagreed with everything since. As of now, we cannot go further because of stalled conversation with the MBTA over their decision to claim the land through eminent domain.”
“We’re committed to making a world class city and a giant waste facility is not the way to go for the southern gateway to the city,” Marianne Kaiser, head of Newmarket Food Association said.
