What's New
State
Auditor Points to Waste-Full Shipyard
The Patriot Ledger
By, Nancy Reardon - June 4, 2008
QUINCY
- The state auditor’s office doesn’t want the Fore River shipyard to
get too waste-full.
That’s
why it’s reminding the MWRA about fertilizer produced at the shipyard
that is supposed to be available to the 61 cities and towns in the sewer
and water system. The free fertilizer is sitting at the plant.
Municipalities can take it- as long as they pick it up themselves, said
spokeswoman Ria Convery.
“Back
several years ago when we started this, we were able to deliver it to
communities that were interested. But of course we now have the same
budget constraints as those communities,” Convery said. “It was
probably more enticing when we brought it to the door.”
The
Quincy plant converts solid waste from the Deer Island Sewage Treatment
Plant in Boston Harbor into fertilizer pellets.
As
part of a $146 million, 15-year contract between the MWRA and the New
England Fertilizer Co., which operates the plant, the state authority is
entitled to up to 900 tons of pellets each year that it can either sell or
donate. Unused pellets go back into the general silo at the end of the
year, Convery said. The firm’s contract expires Dec. 15, 2015.
State
Auditor Joe DeNucci found the MWRA’s efforts to sell or donate the
pellets had declined by 75 percent in recent years.