Face the River: The Merrimack needs protection from a landfill on this site

NEWS: Co-Op withdraws dump permit applications on 8/3/06, in face of significant riverbank erosion and growing public opposition (see "Face the Facts" for more) For NEWS, visit "Face the Facts" page and scroll down. Lacking a voice, the Merrimack River depends on citizen outcry to oppose plans now at DES to build a trash dump along its banks in Canterbury, NH. The Concord Regional Solid Waste Cooperative, a trash collective of 27 towns, plans a 69-acre garbage dump on the 295 acres it owns along the Merrimack River, opening as early as 2014. Two miles from Penacook's Wheelabrator Incinerator, this regional landfill would make Concord's region the trash capital of northern New England. This rural river and public health in the Capital Region and downriver are threatened by potential leakage from this regional dump Plans to build a trash landfill on the Merrimack MUST BE STOPPED through PUBLIC INPUT TO NH DES and the GOVERNOR (governorlynch@nh.gov).

This is an eroding portion of riverbank on the site of a proposed regional landfill on the Merrimack. Note: Photo taken 5/21/06. Years of clean-up effort have dramatically improved the water quality of the Merrimack River. We should not repeat the mistakes of the past by making choices that could damage this precious waterway. Concord Regional Solid Waste Cooperative's plan to build a solid-waste landfill along the banks of the river by 2014 is a step backward. The Cooperative has every intention to build this dump. The proposed site along an oxbow of the Merrimack River deviates from the straight course toward environmental improvement that the river has seen in the last thirty years. Thousands of concerned citizens have come together to raise awareness of these plans for a trash dump along the Merrimack River. The group is growing every week, as citizens across the state sign petitions and write the Governor and DES indicating their opposition to this ill-sited proposal; please contact the organizers at (603) 783-9452 if you'd like to help. Want to help? E-mail us: oxbownh@hotmail.com

For more information, contact (603) 783-9452 or e-mail oxbownh@hotmail.com

Map showing the proposed landfill along the Merrimack River