In the Press

By BOB MARTIN

Eagle Times Staff

CLAREMONT, N.H. ― The Department of Environmental Services (DES) denied the contentious

permit application by Acuity Management to build a facility at Recycling Services at 43 Industrial

Boulevard allowing for the collection of construction and demolition debris.

According to information provided to Claremont officials by DES, on Sept. 20, 2023, an

application was submitted by Recycling Services, Inc. to modify the facility’s permit to increase

the capacity from 50 tons per day to 2,750 tons per week averaged quarterly. There was also a

request to approve the acceptance of construction and demolition debris on top of the items

that are already permitted.

The application was amended multiple times due to DES requests for information, and on

March 15, 2024, Acuity applied for a waiver of some of the solid waste rules. Applications were

deemed completed on Sept. 24, 2024, and a public hearing that drew hundreds of people to the

Claremont Opera House was held on March 6, 2025. The deadline for public comments was

March 27, and after this the deadline for the DES decision was pushed to May 22.

There were several reasons for the denial listed by DES. State law requires the facility to be

designed to prevent entering and exiting vehicles from obstructing the safe flow of traffic on

public roads leading to or from the facility.

“The proposed Facility design will obstruct the safe flow of traffic on the public road, Industrial

Blvd, multiple times per waste haul truck,” the denial report by DES stated.

In this application, the facility would have trucks carrying waste driving east on Industrial

Boulevard and then turning left into 38 Industrial Boulevard. The trucks would then be weighed

and exit to go across the street to enter 43 Industrial Boulevard, and obstructed trucks would

queue until unloading at the tipping floor.

After unloading the trucks would leave, cross the street again to be weighed a second time. The

trucks would exit 38 Industrial Boulevard by turning right and driving west.

Workers would sort the waste to remove recyclable materials at 43 Industrial Boulevard, and

those materials would be stored there to be transported to recycling facilities. The non-

recyclable waste would have been loaded into rail cars to be taken to disposal facilities.

A truck queueing plan from August 2023 found that the trucks are about 35 feet long and travel

way of Industrial Boulevard is 22 feet wide. It was noted that each crossing would completely

obstruct the public road, and with 48 trucks per day over an eight-hour workday, there would be

about 96 complete road obstructions each day. It was also found that there would be additional

road obstructions as facility workers would also need to use entrances and exits.

The DES report added that a typical roll-off truck requires a turning radius of about 42 and 52

feet, and the available turning radius from Industrial Boulevard into the facility is up to about 30

feet. Crossing into oncoming traffic up to 96 more times would be necessary to operate the

facility, the report stated.

In total, the operation would have caused up to about 192 obstructions of traffic each day.

“The proposed operation would require public road usage of a nature and at a frequency that

will obstruct the safe flow of traffic on Industrial Blvd contrary to Env-Sw 1004.02(b),” the report

stated.

Another law requires the facility to “not interfere with the proper operation or closure of any

other facility.” The truck queuing plan showed that the proposed facility doesn’t have enough

queuing space to operate, and turning radii needs will require larger waste haul trucks. There

would be interference that would violate environmental laws, which requires the facility

operations “to be conducted in a manner as to accommodate on-site traffic flow in a safe and

efficient manner.”

The waiver requests were also denied, regarding a 50-foot setback. Currently the facility is

allowed to operate under an existing permit within 50 feet of the property, but the applicant

was proposing to increase the daily tonnage by a factor of 10 and also build new infrastructure

within the property line setback within 50 feet. This required Acuity to seek a waiver.

The report stated that the applicant had a proposed alternative to replace the existing building

with a new one that occupies “essentially the same footprint as the existing building.” It noted

that abutting properties to the north and south are owned by itself and a railroad company. It

stated that the new building would incorporate “improvements for better management of

existing and expanded facility operations,” and the proposal “will not result in an adverse effect

to the environment or natural resources of the state, public health, or to public safety.”

It was determined by DES that the application for a waiver did not meet the criteria needed.

The application has been several years in the works, involving various meetings, hearings, some

litigation, and an outpouring of opposition from concerned members of the public. Many of

these members are part of the group, A Better Claremont, who spoke out about the project

voicing concerns about pollution, the inability for Acuity to handle construction and demolition

debris at the site, and the “bad location for such an operation.” They released a statement

thanking DES for denying the application.

“DES listened to reason and did the right thing,” John Tuthill of Acworth and a member of ABC

said in the release. “Acuity’s proposal did not add up.”

Mayor Dale Girard, who is also a state representative, said the zoning board had worked with

the application and did not see that the proposal met the requirements of the area. He said he

did not feel this was the right location for this type of facility, which was something that the

zoning board and members of the public had previously voiced.

“Basically, DES’s response with the denial of the permit states that this is not a good location for

this type of project,” Girard said. “We appreciate the fact that people want to do business in the

city of Claremont, but we have to be able to do things in the right location for the citizens, as

well.”

Acuity Management has the right to appeal this decision within 30 days. A voicemail and email

were left with Acuity Management but not returned by deadline.

By Patrick O'Grady

CLAREMONT, March 6, 2025 — Speaker after speaker delivered the same message on Thursday night to officials from the state’s Department of Environmental Services: Deny the application for a construction and demolition recycling and transfer operation on Industrial Boulevard.

Close to 400 people attended the state’s hearing on the proposal, which residents contend would be harmful to the environment, public health and the city’s infrastructure.

“You have the power to stop this,” resident Nelia Sargent told DES officials at the more than three-hour hearing at the Claremont Opera House wound down. “We do not want this. You can defend and protect us.”

The more than 60 people who spoke, including business owners, state representatives and city officials, repeatedly urged DES to uphold its mission of protecting the state’s residents and the environment by denying the application. Their comments were repeatedly met with loud applause. “No, means no,” and “No is a complete sentence,” several speakers said.  See the Complete Article