The Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) is holding a listening session on disposal capacity issues for contaminated soil coming from Massachusetts disposal sites (“contaminated” soil meaning concentrations > RCS-2).  This session will help MassDEP better understand the scope and impact of contaminated soil disposal issues and identify possible avenues for addressing them. 

The listening session is planned for December 16 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, to be held via Zoom, and hosted by MassDEP’s Liz Callahan (Acting Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup), Greg Cooper (Division Director, Business Compliance & Recycling), and Paul Locke (Acting Deputy Commissioner, Policy & Planning).  

If you would like to listen in on this meeting, MassDEP will make a Zoom link available at https://www.mass.gov/soil-transport-re-use-and-disposal on December 13. 

If you would like to present your thoughts/ideas at this session, please respond to Liz Callahan by 5 PM December 13 at [email protected] so you can be added to the agenda. 

MassDEP would like each speaker to briefly cover the following items/questions, to the extent relevant: 

• Describe your connection to contaminated soil disposal issues.
• Describe your experience with any reduction in soil disposal capacity/options in the past year/two.  Provide examples and any specifics that will help in getting a full understanding of the issues.
• How have you responded to the reduced capacity issue?  What are you doing differently as a result of reduced disposal options? 
• What are the consequences of the reduced soil disposal capacity/options for you/your work?  Has it, for example, affected schedule/completion of a project?
• Do you have any recommendations regarding options – short term and long term - for addressing this issue or additional information that you think should be gathered to inform this discussion?

Additional information is provided below.

• Link to discussion of capacity issues and options for contaminated soil from disposal sites at BWSC Waste Site Cleanup Advisory Committee, September 23, 2021  
• Links to information requested at September Waste Site Cleanup Advisory Committee meeting:
• List of unlined landfills that may be able to accept soil as grading/shaping material 
• Current active landfill capacity
• Future capacity estimates  - landfill data available on page 8