Southeastern Massachusetts Resource Recovery Facility

Last updated
Southeastern Massachusetts Resource Recovery Facility
Southeastern Massachusetts Resource Recovery Facility
CountryUnited States
Location Rochester, Massachusetts
Coordinates 41°48′11.38″N70°47′21.27″W / 41.8031611°N 70.7892417°W / 41.8031611; -70.7892417 Coordinates: 41°48′11.38″N70°47′21.27″W / 41.8031611°N 70.7892417°W / 41.8031611; -70.7892417
StatusOperational
Commission date 1988
Owner(s) Covanta Energy
Thermal power station
Primary fuelOrganic waste
Power generation
Nameplate capacity 84 MW

The Southeastern Massachusetts Resource Recovery Facility (commonly known as SEMASS) is a waste-to-energy and recycling facility located in Rochester, Massachusetts. It is currently owned by Covanta Energy.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency mandated closure of unlined landfills in the early 1980s-- after which many Cape Cod communities signed agreements to send their municipal waste to SEMASS. [1] Two facilities to transfer trash from trucks to railroad hopper cars, the Upper Cape Regional Transfer Station and the Yarmouth-Barnstable Regional Transfer Station were constructed to consolidate trash receipts and minimize the number of garbage trucks making round trips between their respective towns and SEMASS. The goal was to conserve fuel, lower transportation costs, reduce vehicle exhaust pollution, and mitigate traffic congestion on and near the two bridges spanning the Cape Cod Canal. [1] Massachusetts Coastal Railroad, is the rail service provider for the facility. [2]

The towns served by the station had 30-year disposal contracts with SEMASS that expired between 2015 and 2016. By 2013 the per-ton rates paid by the towns were all well below market rates. [1]

Six towns, Brewster, Chatham, Eastham, Sandwich, Truro, and Yarmouth, renewed with SEMASS, but a competitor, ABC Disposal Service of New Bedford, signed up seven other towns, Barnstable, Dennis, Harwich, Mashpee, Orleans, Provincetown, and Wellfleet, with a promise to build a new recycling and disposal plant. As of 2016 the plant has not been built, the waste is being sent to landfills and ABC has filed for bankruptcy. [3] As of November 2019 ABC has approached Mashpee looking for a substantial increase in their tipping fees claiming the failure to reach an agreement may force the company out of business. ABC has still not completed the promised waste to brickette facility that they sold many town on. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Cod</span> Cape in the northeastern United States

Cape Cod is a hook-shaped peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnstable County, Massachusetts</span> County in Massachusetts, United States

Barnstable County is a county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was 228,996. Its shire town is Barnstable. The county consists of Cape Cod and associated islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mashpee, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Mashpee is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, on Cape Cod. The population was 15,060 as of 2020. The town is the site of the headquarters and most members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, one of two federally recognized Wampanoag groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yarmouth, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Yarmouth is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 25,023 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Landfill</span> Site for the disposal of waste materials

A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, refuse was simply left in piles or thrown into pits; in archeology this is known as a midden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bourne, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Bourne is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 20,452 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Falmouth, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Falmouth is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census, making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable. The terminal for the Steamship Authority ferries to Martha's Vineyard is located in the village of Woods Hole in Falmouth. Woods Hole also contains several scientific organizations such as the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), the Woodwell Climate Research Center, NOAA's Woods Hole Science Aquarium, and the scientific institutions' various museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandwich, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Sandwich is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, and is the oldest town on Cape Cod. The town motto is Post tot Naufracia Portus, "after so many shipwrecks, a haven". The population was 20,259 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Cod Central Railroad</span>

The Cape Cod Central Railroad is a heritage railroad located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It operates on a rail line known as the Cape Main Line which is owned by Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The line was previously owned and operated by the Cape Cod Railroad, the Old Colony Railroad, and later the New Haven Railroad, each of which operated passenger trains on the line from 1854 to 1959. Although it is the namesake of the Cape Cod Central Railroad (1861–68), the two companies are unrelated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Cod Railroad</span>

The Cape Cod Railroad is a railroad in southeastern Massachusetts, running from Pilgrim Junction in Middleborough across the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge, where it splits towards Hyannis in one direction and Falmouth in the other. It was incorporated in 1846 as the Cape Cod Branch Railroad to provide a rail link from the Fall River Railroad line in Middleborough to Cape Cod.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Municipal solid waste</span> Type of waste consisting of everyday items discarded by the public

Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, as in a garbage disposal; the two are sometimes collected separately. In the European Union, the semantic definition is 'mixed municipal waste,' given waste code 20 03 01 in the European Waste Catalog. Although the waste may originate from a number of sources that has nothing to do with a municipality, the traditional role of municipalities in collecting and managing these kinds of waste have produced the particular etymology 'municipal.'

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste collection</span> Transfer of refuse from origin to treatment or landfill facility

Waste collection is a part of the process of waste management. It is the transfer of solid waste from the point of use and disposal to the point of treatment or landfill. Waste collection also includes the curbside collection of recyclable materials that technically are not waste, as part of a municipal landfill diversion program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demetrius Atsalis</span> American politician

Demetrius J. Atsalis is a Democratic Party politician who represented the 2nd Barnstable District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1999 to 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Cod Rail Trail</span>

The Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT) is a 25.5-mile (41.0 km) paved rail trail located on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The trail route passes through the towns of Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, and Wellfleet. It connects to the 6-plus mile (10 km) Old Colony Rail Trail leading to Chatham, the 2 mile Yarmouth multi-use trail, and 8 miles (13 km) of trails within Nickerson State Park. Short side trips on roads lead to national seashore beaches including Coast Guard Beach at the end of the Nauset Bike Trail in Cape Cod National Seashore. The trail is part of the Claire Saltonstall Bikeway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Cod Regional Technical High School</span> Public vocational/technical school in Harwich, Massachusetts, United States

Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, also known as Cape Tech, Cape Cod Tech, Lower Cape Tech, and sometimes abbreviated as CCT, is a public vocational and technical high school located in Harwich, Massachusetts, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusetts Coastal Railroad</span> Railroad in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is a Class III railroad serving south-eastern Massachusetts. The railroad maintains track from Hyannis to Framingham, with the railroad operating its own trains on the 97 miles of lines between Hyannis and Fall River/New Bedford. The railroad is the successor operator of portions of the Bay Colony Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic Services</span> American waste disposal corporation

Republic Services is an American waste disposal company whose services include non-hazardous solid waste collection, waste transfer, waste disposal, recycling, and energy services. It is the second largest provider of waste disposal in the United States after Waste Management Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Falmouth station</span>

North Falmouth station was a railroad station on the Old Colony Railroad on Depot Road in North Falmouth, Massachusetts. Service to the station began in 1872 and ended in 1964, and the station burned down in 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnstable, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Barnstable is a town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod, and is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipalities that have been granted city forms of government by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts but wish to retain "the town of" in their official names. At the 2020 census it had a population of 48,916. The town contains several villages within its boundaries. Its largest village, Hyannis, is the central business district of the county and home to Barnstable Municipal Airport, the airline hub of Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Additionally, Barnstable is a 2007 winner of the All-America City Award.

The Upper Cape Regional Transfer Station (UCRTS) is a municipal waste transfer facility located within Joint Base Cape Cod. The facility is within the town limits of Falmouth, but on state-owned land at the southern end of the military base, and is about a mile west of the Falmouth entrance gate. It is one of two truck-to-rail trash transfer facilities on Cape Cod, with the other being the Yarmouth-Barnstable Regional Transfer Station.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Evaluation of Future Disposal Alternatives for Municipal Solid Waste, Cape Cod Commission, April 2010 . Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  2. Mass Coastal Railroad web site Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  3. "Where Will Cape Cod Put Its Trash when Mass. Landfills Fill Up?". 5 July 2016.
  4. https://www.capenews.net/mashpee/news/contractor-says-town-needs-to-pay-more-for-waste-disposal/article_b78196d8-de95-54b4-9cce-8b87558be5ca.html>