CLAREMONT — 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.

Others reminded state officials that the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment twice denied the proposal and local approvals are needed for it to move forward.

“This application is an insult to Claremont,” said resident Jack Hurley. “We don’t want Claremont to become a dumping ground.”

Acuity Management of Methuen, Mass., which owns Recycling Services, is asking DES to modify its 1987 permit, which includes metal and cardboard for recycling, and allow the company to accept up to 500 tons a day of construction and demolition material. According to its application, the company said it will construct a new building on a 1-acre parcel on the rail siding that is located across Industrial Boulevard from Recycling Services’ main operation. The debris would be dumped on a concrete floor and sorted for recyclables. The remainder would be loaded on to rail cars and shipped to a landfill in Ohio.

Acuity has been trying to receive approval for its proposal for several years. The city has twice denied its request because it viewed the operation as a transfer station, which is not permitted in the industrial district.

Acuity, which filed for a permit modification with DES in 2023, also has a lawsuit against the city pending in Superior Court.

John Tuthill, of Acworth, N,H., who has followed the waste industry in New Hampshire for years, noted that this is the third application Acuity has submitted to DES since 2017.

“This is not about recycling. That’s a public relations fig leaf Acuity is using, perhaps, in part to get by the public benefit clause (in state law),” Tuthill said. “No one is going to recycle much out of mixed loads of construction and demolition debris with an excavator, a long arm and a thumb on the bucket. The application does not pass the laugh test ... or the smell test.”

David Putnam has owned a business in Claremont for decades and has served on numerous municipal boards and commissions, including the zoning and planning boards that reviewed Acuity’s applications over the years.

“We felt we were on good ground on all the decisions we made, and they appeal to you to circumvent and go around the zoning and planning board and the administrative decisions the city has made,” Putnam said. “It is rude, obnoxious, and upsetting. I am so upset I am quivering.

“This is inappropriate for them to think they have a better idea for what they can do for us than we can do for ourselves.”

Resident Meg Hurley said Acuity is “acting like a selfish, teenage bully. We say no, no, no, so they sue us.”

The size of the parcel, less than 100-feet wide, had several people wondering how Acuity could handle that much debris and compared the firm’s proposal to a similar operation that uses 30 acres on a 75 acre parcel in Epping, N.H.

Resident Ken Aldrich, who lives on Maple Avenue near an elementary school, is just a quarter mile from the facility. He said his home sits just feet from the road and is worried debris from the estimated 70 trucks a day will fall in his front yard. He also questioned how the proposed operation could function on one acre.

“How is it possible, they can bring in what they say they want to bring in, dump, sort and process and put into rail cars inside an 11,000-square-foot building,” Aldrich said. “I don’t know how that is possible.”

Fears of hazardous material with lead, mercury, asbestos and a group of chemicals known as PFAS; groundwater contamination of an underground aquifer, and damage to roads in a city that already struggles to maintain its infrastructure were other points repeatedly made by speakers.

Resident John Lambert, who owns property near the site, said there will be toxic dust and heavy pollution that can harm a large sand aquifer, located under the property that drains to Meadow Brook, which leads to the Connecticut River. He had serious doubts that the runoff and rainwater draining from the rail cars can be properly contained in that area to prevent it from entering the aquifer.

“We don’t want to see that polluted,” Lambert said.

In its application to DES, filed in August 2023 by Nobis Engineering of Concord for Recycling Services, the company does not specifically address any of the concerns of residents but instead claims “the proposed modification will not negatively affect the environment, public health, or safety” and goes on to state that “while the materials received at the Facility are not a likely source of contamination to surface and groundwater, storage and handling will be inside the enclosed building to provide an additional layer of protection of the environment.”

It further states the operation is in line with the state’s solid waste goals, including preserving in-state landfill space.

“The C&D debris received will be subject to increased recycling/reuse instead of direct disposal via incineration and/or landfilling,” the application states

Peter Cameron, one of the owners of Acuity, denied that hazardous material will be brought to the facility and also said only New Hampshire debris will be accepted, though as someone pointed out the application does not limit the service area.

“Our interest is in only taking non-hazardous material,” Cameron said at the hearing. “We turn away hazardous material all the time and are capable of doing that.”

He said the proposed process will save landfill space by removing recyclables and it is imperative the state begin recycling C&D.

“It is the most effective way to recycle construction and demolition material for the state of New Hampshire,” Cameron said about their proposal.

When asked about concerns that the site is far too small, Cameron said “it is what it is and we think we can make it work.”

Resident Ron Mitchell, who spoke remotely, said the application is “intentionally vague with a lack of details so they can’t be held accountable.

“They say there won’t be hazardous material but they can’t control that and can’t guarantee that,” Mitchell said. “We are not going to know if there is hazardous material until it arrives and it is not going to be the transfer station’s fault, but we still have to deal with it and it’s dangerous.”

In response to several requests, the DES agreed to extend the public comment period from two weeks to three, which means it ends on March 27, at which point DES will have 30 days to make a decision. The application could be approved as is, denied or approved with conditions.

Local approvals will still be required.

At the start of the hearing, one of the first speakers was resident Ken Lownie, who lives on Jarvis Hill Road, a likely route for trucks heading to Industrial Boulevard.

Lownie likened Acuity’s application to an attempted courtship with Claremont, his adopted hometown, but said the feeling is not mutual.

“I see you have been trying to get this deal done with Claremont for a long time, with different approaches and different proposals,” Lownie said. “So it seems like you really like my town, which I appreciate. But I have to tell you, my town just is not that into you. You need to find a place that wants a relationship…. I am sure you will find a nice place. But you need to move on, because we, the people who live here, are not going away.”

Written testimony can be submitted one of three ways: By email to swpublic.comment@des.nh.gov; by regular mail to NHDES-SWMB Attn: Jason Evancic, PO Box 95, Concord, NH 03302; or by hand delivery to NHDES’ office at 29 Hazen Drive, Concord.

The complete application from Acuity is online at: https://www4.des.state.nh.us//DocViewer/?ContentId=5109350.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.