by Lee Koska, PE, Weston & Sampson

A Community Facility with a Long History

Every year, millions of tons of municipal solid waste flow through Massachusetts for disposal. Though most people don’t think about their trash every day, the strategies for dealing with these literal mountains of waste have evolved over the decades. Across the state, the closure of many “town dumps” over the last 30 years means that solid waste has been increasingly diverted to other locations for final disposal, including incinerators, regional landfills, or out of state. To support these changes in disposal practices, many town dumps were converted into transfer stations where residents and commercial haulers drop off waste and recycling.

Beyond acting as a transportation nexus, transfer stations have also become a focal point of the local community. A social gathering point, each transfer station is a unique but surprisingly beloved town fixture. 

Removing the Past to Build the Future

In Winchester, their transfer station was also originally the town’s landfill before the advent of modern regulations. In the 1960s, an incinerator was built on the site to burn waste and reduce overall volume, but it only operated until the 1970s. The site was subsequently converted to the transfer station with the incinerator itself remaining largely unused for decades. 

In 2020, when the town decided to move forward with much needed repairs and improvements to the transfer station, Manager Nick Parlee saw an opportunity to modernize and upgrade it to meet current trends and standards for solid waste and recycling. To help, he hired Weston & Sampson to design and permit the facility and maximize the use of about $6 million in allocated funds in support of a more modern facility.

First and foremost, the old incinerator had to go. Located in the center of the site, it acted as a barrier to traffic flow and took up valuable real estate and, having sat abandoned since its closure, had fallen into disrepair. The structure also housed the site’s electrical connection, which was in jeopardy due to the deteriorating building condition. Following abatement of asbestos lining the furnaces, removal of decades of pigeon guano, and disposal of residual hazardous materials remaining in the burn chambers for 50 years, the building was reduced to a pile of bricks in the span of a single weekend.  

The impacts from the incinerator however were not limited to traffic challenges and an eyesore. Despite having only operated for about 10 years, it had nonetheless resulted in large volumes of ash underneath both the transfer station and the nearby high school. Capped in the 2000s, the on-site ash exhibited high concentrations of lead and other heavy metals and required careful handling during construction.  

Just south of the old incinerator, a new elevated recycling area was constructed for resident and commercial recycling dropoff which allowed better traffic flow and improved safety by keeping the residents separated from facility vehicles and waste handling operations. To support its construction, however, an existing hillside needed to be excavated, which required management of hundreds of tons of contaminated material.

Managing Legacy Contamination

Soil and ash under the recycling area exhibited elevated concentrations of leachable lead that required stabilization prior to off-site disposal. An additive was used to bind the metals into a solid crystalline matrix and render it safe to transport and dispose. Federal RCRA regulations required this work to be done within the excavation area without moving the soil and for testing to be done on every 100 tons of soil to verify effectiveness.

Elevated lead was not the only contaminant issue at the site. During the precharacterization phase, we identified an area of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) impacts near the scrap metal handling area. Although the source of the PCB impacts was initially unknown, interviews with facility staff determined that several transformers were once brought to the transfer station by an outside contractor and dumped in this area for the town to manage. Oil from these transformers then leaked into the ground, forming a localized area of impacts. Since concentrations exceeded regulatory thresholds and the date of the spill was estimated to have occurred in 1992, we determined that Toxic Substances Recovery Act (TSCA) cleanup regulations applied.

Following several rounds of sampling, the material was ultimately excavated and disposed of at an out-of-state TSCA landfill, along with an Activity and Use Limitation (AUL) filed for the area. This required that the area remain free of structures and that an expanded concrete material pad be maintained as a cap over residual contamination.

Completed in 2024, facility improvements have greatly modernized a vital piece of town infrastructure, but Nick Parlee had further plans for the facility. Through state grant funding, the town procured an anaerobic digestor to process food waste from the local middle school and other residential and commercial sources. The residuals from this process are added to the existing compost operation to enrich the final material, which is provided free to town residents to use.

The town is also now looking at opportunities to install a large solar array on an awning system to both provide renewable energy revenue and to protect residents from the rain and snow when dropping off their recyclables and waste. Weston & Sampson continues to work closely with the town by supporting the permitting and engineering efforts for these follow-on projects.

A Model for Sustainable Waste Management

The Winchester transfer station exemplifies the changes in solid waste management over the last 100 years. From a town dump to an incinerator to a capped landfill and modern transfer station, the facility has continuously evolved to meet the needs of both the community and increasing environmental regulation. Now pivoting into renewable energy and food waste management, the town remains at the forefront of municipal waste management. Through the efforts of Nick Parlee and many others, the town is well positioned for changes in waste disposal regulations for decades to come.

The Author:

Lee Koska, PE (MA), is a Remediation Team Leader at Weston & Sampson in Reading, Massachusetts. He can be reached at koskal@wseinc.com.