SUNDERLAND – David Goodwin and Aaron Falbel, chair and vice chair of the Energy Committee, met with the Selectboard on Aug. 22 to talk about establishing a transfer station for trash disposal and recycling.

“There’s a direct connection between trash and energy,” Falbel said. “Trash disposal uses energy to haul it away and dispose of it. Recycling also uses a certain amount of energy, much less than trash. So the less trash our town produces, the more recycling and reuse our town manages, the quicker the energy savings.”

Goodwin said that before he moved to Sunderland, curbside pickup was the norm, and was paid for by the town with property taxes. A Proposition 2.5 override failed one year and that service was discontinued. Subsequently, each household had to contract with a trash hauler to pick up refuse. The difficulty now is the lack of competition. USA Waste Recycling, according to Goodwin, bought up companies, ended competition and now charges fees of $480 per year.

“Prices have gone up and up and up,” Goodwin said. “Multiply that by the number of households in town that might do this, you’ve got a pretty substantial chunk of money on the line that could create a different model for waste and recycling.”

Energy Committee members huddled over GIS maps of Sunderland to scope out a suitable property, plots of land already owned by the town. Thirty-three parcels were identified. Most were unfit for the use, being too small, far from the center of town, lacking sufficient acreage, or did not have electricity to the site.

Goodwin and Falbel commented that four sites were initially identified as possible options. A property on Reservation Road is completely landlocked. The 7 acres of prime forest land would require a road be built to access the site located behind several residences. Building a transfer station on beautiful land also did not appeal to committee members. There is no ready access for three phase power, further increasing costs associated with the site.

A second site on Hunter Hill was also identified, but is somewhat on the small side at 1.5 acres. Complicating the picture, the Hunter Hill property and the acreage on Reservation Road are both under conservation restrictions.

Two parcels on Bull Hill Road, totaling more than 14 acres, would be suitable for a transfer station, according to Goodwin. The plot is just off the road, east of the gravel pit, and close to the town line with Leverett. The property is less than perfect. It forms a bowl, features a steep access road, and lies at a peripheral boundary of the town.

“The police department used that as a firing range,” said Tom Fydenkevez, chair of the Selectboard. “I don’t know if they still do, but they used to.”

“I believe I’ve heard two folks mention a solar field there,” Goodwin replied.

Fydenkevez agreed the plot would be a great place for both a solar field and transfer station. Electrical power is again a difficulty. Electrical distribution lines, which are less robust, reach the area, but transmission lines would be necessary. That infrastructure would have to be put in place.

Energy Committee members visited the transfer station in Leverett, a large facility with soup to nuts recycling services. A similar full service menu might not be possible on the most favorable site found by the Energy Committee. That location lies between the public safety complex and wastewater treatment plant. The undeveloped parcel covers 8 acres, but waivers on the abutting properties call for buffer zones of 100 feet on each side.

“The width of the property from east to west is, I think, about 346 feet,” Goodwin said. “That takes out a pretty big chunk of the land already.”

A waiver of the buffer zones is a possibility, Goodwin said, and three phase power serves the parcel. “We couldn’t do the whole menu of items I showed you (but) we could certainly do trash recycling and a couple of other things.”

The site adjacent to the public safety complex was used as a helicopter landing pad when LifeFlight transportation was necessary, according to Fire Chief Steve Benjamin. He didn’t nix the site as a location for the transfer station. Live fire training has also been staged on the blacktop pad there.

Nathanial Waring, the newest member of the Selectboard, commented on an additional benefit of having a transfer station: communication. Waring knows that transfer stations strengthen the social fabric of a community and serve as a clearing house for information.

“I don’t think we should understate how important it is for the community or the town, to have a place like that where people can meet up,” Waring said. “There’s more than just trash pickup that happens at transfer stations, and I can’t speak highly enough of how that ties together a community.”

Goodwin commented that the Leverett transfer station has a budget of about $85,000, much of which is paid by user fees.