GEORGETOWN – The only issue at the new G. Mello Disposal Corp.’s Transfer Station since it opened two months ago was one lithium battery caught fire.
The fire was put out in minutes, even before the Georgetown Fire Department arrived minutes later, by a highly sophisticated suppression system.
“It is surprising how uneventful it has been. Customers have adapted quickly,” said Mark Van Weelden, director of Mello’s business development.
The worst fears by neighbors, other residents and town officials that the 150 tons per-day trash transfer station would harm the town have not materialized. Police have reported no complaints of traffic hangups at the intersection of Carleton Drive and East Main Street, primarily because only three to five 18-wheeler trucks are leaving the site per day.
And because little trash is left overnight, there have been no complaints from neighbors about odor.
The transfer station went through nine years of scrutiny by the town’s Board of Health, the Planning Board, the Conservation Commission and state agencies. Only the Health Board approved the transfer station initially without state court orders, and the health department imposed some of the most stringent operational conditions on the new plant, including limiting it to 150 tons of trash per day for the first two years.
The plant will not reach full capacity of 500 tons, per day until its fifth year of operations. As a result, less than half of the 15,000 square-foot station is being used. And the number of 18-wheel trucks hauling away the trash to incinerators is limited to an hour in the early morning, between 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. and another hour in the afternoon, between 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.
At the intersection of Carleton Drive and East Main Street, the large trucks must turn east or left to reach Interstate 95. They are prohibited from traveling through town.
“There are a lot of trucks in Georgetown,” Van Weelden said. “But if you see a truck in Georgetown, it ain’t us.”
On average, the station processes about 125 tons per day, Most is hauled away the day it arrives, Van Weelden said. If there is an odor emanating from the trash, the station has a dust and odor suppression system that sprays scented water to kill the smell and the dust. The only problem is that the sweet smell give the workers a headache, he said.
The station also is equipped with 36 cameras that monitor it 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If there is a problem, like the battery fire, the system notifies the fire department and Van Weelden.
“Our goal is to put out the fire before the fire department arrives,” he said.
About 200 customers bring their trash to the station on weekends. The busiest day of the week is Sunday, when the station closes at noon. “We think people are taking their trash to church,” he said.
There has been little waiting because the new station has two scales, and there are workers who help customers unload their trucks and cars.
The most popular items are mattresses, which go in a separate trailer. On average, customers are throwing away 60 to 70 mattresses a week.
The new station, Van Weelden said, is no longer being referred to as the Mello dump, but rather the Mello transfer station.
Demolition of the old trash transfer station on Main Street will be completed and turned over to the town’s public works department by May 5. “We are ahead of schedule,” he said. ♦
