Agency of Natural Resources
Department of Environmental Conservation
Waste Management Division
West Building
802-241-3888
MEMORANDUM
To:
Record
From:
Carey Hengstenberg
Date:
December 22, 2005
Subject:
Smith Brook Dump Site, Randolph
I visited the Smith Brook dump site in Randolph on November 29, 2005 with Cathy Kashanski
(Water Quality Division) and Julie Hackbarth (Solid Waste Management Program). The purpose
of the site visit was to follow up on several complaints and to confirm the location of the
segment of Smith Brook classified as impaired. We visited 2 sites in the vicinity of the Smith
Brook. The first was on Smith Brook just north of the Pleasant View Cemetery and the second
was south of Smith Brook on the other side of the cemetery. As I attempt to explain in this
memo, the two areas appear to be related to the same dump site.
Site #1 - Smith Brook Site
We parked on Pleasant View Cemetery Road near a storage unit because there was access to
Smith Brook behind the storage building. We observed orange iron precipitate in the brook and
iron staining in the sediments of Smith Brook. This extended several hundred feet upstream
from the storage building. As we walked upstream the amount of iron staining and iron
precipitate decreased. There was junk (mostly metal) dumped along the embankment west of the
brook for several hundred feet. The junk consisted mostly of old appliances (washing machines,
stoves, etc…), sheet metal, old cars and a few tires. The junk was located on a steep
embankment between the brook and a snowmobile trail. We did not walk far enough upstream
to see how far the junk extended.
Site #2 – Orange Leachate off Dylan Road.
This site is located on the other side of the cemetery and about 1000 feet south of Smith Brook.
This site was originally discovered as a complaint from June 2005 of “orange-colored water in a
drainage area”. It was mentioned by the complainant that the orange water is leachate from the
“old Randolph Dump”.
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On November 29, 2005, the area looked the same as I remembered from my previous site visit in
June 2005. Orange leachate was discharging from the ground surface and pooling up in shallow
standing water that does not appear to be flowing. There were a few tires and pieces of scrap
metal on the ground. We followed the orange stained surface water east back towards Beanville
Rd. It appears to be an intermittent stream channel. The orange-stained surface water extended
about 1000 feet to the east before disappearing into the ground just before reaching Beanville Rd.
See attached map.
When I originally visited the site in June with EEO Patrick Nevers and Buzz Surwilo of the Solid
Waste Program, we did not know anything about the “old Randolph dump” and we did not walk
far enough north of the groundwater seep to see that there was evidence of a dump nearby. At
that time, I also reviewed public records but did not find any information on the old Randolph
Dump.
Follow Up to Date
I reviewed additional files from public records and discovered information regarding this old
dump site. Copies of the relevant parts of the file were copied and are attached to this memo.
Information from the file indicates that the area behind the Pleasant View Cemetery (Site #2)
was an old dumpsite used by the town until the early 1970s when they began to develop a new
facility on the other side of Beanville Rd. According to a 1972 Report on Engineering Studies
on the existing Randolph Dumping Area, “the residents of the Towns of Randolph and Braintree
are disposing of their refuse by open dump methods and covering the material with layers of
earth. Over the years, what was once a ravine has been filled with trash”. The dump site is
described as a shallow ravine bordered by farmland to the west and a cemetery to the east with
gullies to the north and south. It also appears that in the 1970s, the town of Randolph did not
own the property but leased it from someone.
In the public records there is a proposal by the town of Randolph to continue disposing of trash
in this area by using “sanitary landfill methods”. The proposed site plans from 1972 for the
proposed sanitary landfill show the proposed landfill extending from Site #2 all the way around
the cemetery to the approximate location of the snowmobile trail near Smith Brook. I can’t tell
from the correspondence and site plans in the file what the extent of buried trash in this area is
and how much, if any, of the proposed landfill cell was actually used. The new landfill across
the street was not permitted and constructed until 1977; it’s not clear where trash from the town
of Randolph was going between 1972 and 1977. It is possible that it was buried at the site near
the cemetery.
There is internal correspondence (no official letters) from the Agency indicating that the Agency
did not support building a landfill at this location due to potential disturbance to the surface
water flow regime.
According to a memo dated December 8, 1972, the site was unacceptable as a sanitary landfill
because (1) the present dump was apparently obstructing natural drainage from south to north in
“the gully”; (2) The site is too close to Smith Brook.
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Another memo to the file (not dated) discusses preliminary conclusions from Dave Butterfield,
ANR, on the acceptability of the site. The memo says there is a possibility that water in the
southwest section of the site used to drain to the brook in the north section indicating that there
may be constant underground water movement through the existing dump and proposed landfill.
Additional Follow Up
1. Contact Town Manager/Town Clerk
2. Find out who owns the property
3. Try to find out the extent of buried trash at this site.
cc:
Julie Hackbarth (w/o attachments)
Patrick Nevers, ANR Enforcement (w/o attachments)
Karen Bates, Water Quality Division
Cathy Kashanski, Water Quality Division
Steve Fiske, Water, Water Quality Division
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