Why are environmental activists trashing the latest budget deal on New Hampshire landfills?
At first glance, the landfill legislation in HB 2 (also known as the “budget trailer”) appears to be a classic Concord compromise: Business interests sought to largely leave the industry untouched. Environmental activists wanted an end to new landfill construction.
And Gov. Kelly Ayotte wanted to fulfill her campaign pledge of killing a planned landfill near Forest Lake State Park in Dalton, a project she called “complete insanity.”
The proposal includes a one-year moratorium on new landfills, creates a site selection committee to oversee new projects, and gives preferential treatment to expanding current landfills rather than creating new ones.
All of which adds up to a result that is nearly certain to doom the Forest Lake landfill proposed by Casella Waste Systems, based in Vermont.
From an environmental protection standpoint, Tony Giunta, the former director of the New Hampshire Waste Management Division at DES, says it’s a good deal.
“I commend them for striking a delicate balance between the governor’s wishes for more stakeholder input and achieving the goals of the state’s solid waste plan,” Giunta said.
Giunta also served as mayor of Franklin, where he lobbied for renewable energy and biomass mandates. He calls the deal a “forward-thinking, long-term way that addresses our statewide solid waste needs while protecting our health and environment.”
But it’s not good enough for activists like the North Country Alliance for Balanced Change (NCABC). Even though the proposal will make the Casella landfill project nearly impossible to build, its members have been fighting for it since 2019, and the NCABC leadership is still urging the legislature to dump the deal.
“The Senate proposal overrides local control, giving the state the power to impose landfills on unwilling communities,” said NCABC president Wayne Morrison.
Adam Finkel, a Dalton resident and former senior executive at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who has been a close—and—outspoken ally of NCABC, is also adamant.
“It’s tyranny,” he told NHJournal.
Supporters of the bipartisan proposal passed by the state Senate are urging opponents not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
“There will always be some opposition to important legislation, but in this case, nearly everyone agrees with our approach,” said Sen. Howard Pearl (R-Loudon). “The Senate considered the priorities set forth by the governor and by the House and found a reasonable compromise that we could support.”
A group of unhappy House Republicans, led by Rep. Kelley Potenza (R-Rochester), released a statement calling for the Senate version to be killed.
“Most concerning of all, it would allow the state to override the will of local communities, prioritizing the interests of private companies over the rights of the people by imposing landfill expansions even when towns object,” they wrote.
Supporters of the Senate deal acknowledge that the debate over where to draw the line on local control vs. state oversight is a legitimate one.
But why are local activists like the NCABC, who organized — successfully — to stop Forest Lake, still fighting?
One theory is ideology. A local, grassroots effort to block an unpopular proposal impacting their community has evolved into ideological activism. Critics of NCABC’s stance point to the groups it’s aligned with and the political extremists who’ve joined the cause.
For example, NCABC’s list of partners includes the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and a self-declared “social justice” spin-off organization called Just Zero based in Massachusetts.
CLF supports banning all single-use plastic products — bags, cups, straws, bottles — as well as decommissioning all natural gas pipelines in New England.
Just Zero is active in the effort to pass laws mandating food composting, not just by large institutions, but also “requirements for setting aside compostable food waste at home.”
Their stated goal? “Just Zero wants to phase out landfills – for good.”
Meanwhile, the effort has gathered an eclectic group of advocates from the political left.
Finkel, for example, describes himself as a “liberal Democrat.” He’s publicly denounced the Republican Party as “pro-coercion, anti-family, and profoundly anti-science.”
He speaks authoritatively about the science of landfills and leachate. He told NHJournal he was less than impressed by the engineers and scientists overseeing the landfill industry in New Hampshire.
“I’m a PhD-level scientist and former agency head. I moved to the state, and I’m awash in B and C-team scientists,” Finkel said. “Engineers are very important to design stuff. But there are no scientists in New Hampshire, at the (Department of Environmental Services), who are at my level. So it’s very frustrating to be talked down to by these amateurs.”
Finkel also speaks openly about his “hatred” of Casella, whom he blames for some unpleasant publicity he received after the state accused him of wrongfully voting in the 2024 state primary and general elections.
The Boston Globe reports that Finkel was fined by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office for voting in Dalton when his primary residence was in New Jersey.
Finkel told NHJournal the charge “is completely bogus and unfair.” He said he had not paid the fine and was still in discussions with the state Department of Justice. But the real villain, he said, was Casella.
“I think they’re behind the vendetta,” Finkel said regarding his legal woes. “I think they — you know, this happened a week after my op ed appeared in the (Concord) Monitor, which I can send you if you don’t have it.”
Finkel isn’t the only NCABC advocate who’s had unusual encounters with the law.
Jon Swan, founder of Save Forest Lake, has a colorful background that includes faking his death, posting a tribute website to a suicide pilot who flew his plane into the IRS, and trying to form a “militia” when he lived in upstate New York.
The thread running through these stories is an embrace of extreme politics, which makes compromise more difficult.
“The work we did in the budget on solid waste addresses a critical issue for our state. All people create trash, and that trash needs to go somewhere,” said Sen. Kevin Avard (R-Nashua). “The language in HB 2 brings a compromise solution to a challenge our state has faced for more than the decade that I’ve been in the legislature and gives local municipalities a forum to discuss the community impacts.”
Asked if the NCABC approach is letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, Finkel said it was a good question.
“If this really was a compromise, perhaps,” Finkel said. “But if it’s a choice between the Senate language or nothing — the Senate language, I’m absolutely sure, is far worse than the status quo. So why should I be for it?”
NCABC declined to respond to repeated requests for comment. After the article published, Morrison sent a statement to clarify his group’s position,
“The major issue with the current Senate approach is simple: They allow the state to override local control and have the ability to expand a landfill even when a town doesn’t want it and has zoning or contractual agreements against it. That is not good government, and we are not sure why the Senate insists this portion must remain.”
