DEEP RIVER

Since its establishment this year, and for the past six months, the Deep River Transfer Station Committee has been discussing and formulating its priorities to improve enforcement and conditions at the Transfer Station, thereby following up on both prior success and shortcomings in the areas of waste sustainability and management.

According to Lenore Grunko, the committee’s chair, “The purpose is to serve as a committee to help make economic and procedural improvements at the Transfer Station,” while doing so in an advisory fashion to the Board of Selectmen.

One of the committee’s priorities is tackling the issue of unauthorized use of the town’s dump by nonresidents of Deep River or Chester—a theme among residents which has been previously recognized by town officials and volunteers. First Selectman Carol Jones, who has sat in on previous meetings related to the Transfer Station, said that effective enforcement has already been met in the form of station employees looking more closely at stickers placed on vehicles which designate authorized use.

“It made most of the residents feel good that it was finally getting enforced. People were really looking at the stickers,” said Jones.

Committee member Tom Groth said that “one of our goals is to try to increase compliance” at the station by encouraging residents who use the Transfer Station to pick up stickers at the Town Clerk’s Office.

One of the biggest goals for the committee in 2025 is rewriting the town’s solid waste ordinance, which was last updated in 1985. Grunko said this is a “challenge for us,” but added that it remains a “biggie” for the committee, which is close to finishing updates. A presentation of the new ordinance to the public would follow.

“When we get to the point of presenting it to the town, on the advisement of the Board of Selectmen, we’re [presenting] the existing ordinance and color-coding the changes,” said Grunko. “We can throw it up on a screen, and people can see what we want to take out, what we want to change, so nobody is going to think we're pulling any wool over anybody's eyes, and present that with explanations.”

The committee will also look to quantify data on unauthorized use of the Transfer Station, most likely through tracking factors such as vehicle stickers and license plates of dumpers.

“This is in our plans—a method to document people who have come through and are not authorized,” said Grunko. “It has to stop. We don’t want to pay for misuse.”

Other goals for the committee include additional improvements to the general infrastructure of the Transfer Station. One change has already been brought with the installation of blocks at the lower part of the station’s hopper—a change which has helped tenants who do not have to “worry about trying to see what somebody is trying to dump off behind his back,” said committee member Dorothy DeMichael.

Other improvements being considered are new gating and cameras for extra enforcement, in addition to a ramp which is accessible to disabled people for senior citizens who are looking to recycle. A new flow pattern of incoming vehicles is also being considered for enforcement purposes, such as having bulky waste which is typically disposed at the lower level of the station to now be dumped near the gatehouse.

The committee is interested in providing educational opportunities for residents to learn more about its efforts and the impact of sustainability dumping on an environmental level. This is especially important to committee member Katharine David, who also sits on the Deep River Sustainable CT Committee. David said that they have “already been in the high schools with the food scrapping” program, but that the mission continues with “educating the townspeople, starting from the elementary school.”