What a Bunch of Rubbish

I remember watching the famous "Crying Indian" pollution commercial starring Iron Eyes Cody when I was just a little kid and although the actuality of Cody's Native American heritage has been a matter of debate, the powerful message communicated in this decades old commercial can not be denied.

Every time I watch that commercial I am mesmerized into silence once again, like I was the first time I saw it as kid in the 70s. It pains me to think about the environmental mess the Mashpee Wampanoag Bingo Hall Resort will cause, a mess that will be caused by a group of people who are susposed to be stewards of the land. Aside from the wetland destruction, natural habitat destruction, water pollution, air pollution, light and noise pollution, etc. etc. etc., trash and litter along our roads will be quite obvious.

Even today, without an unregulated class II bingo hall resort right down the road from my home, I am constantly picking up the trash that collects along my stretch of road and around my yard. This litter is not necessarily from people throwing trash out their car windows as they pass through my neighborhood either, sure some is…and some is from trash blown my way from areas unknown due to uncovered trash containers, trash haulers and such. My recent litter retrieval adventures around the yard got me thinking about garbage, specifically the huge amount of garbage that will be generated from an establishment like the one outlined in the Mashpee Wampanoag’s site plans that were recently released to the newspaper. I did get a chance to look at the plans – the scaled back plans for the “resort”.

One would think that after the excellent decision to kill Patrick’s 3+ casino plan and thus killing the chances for the Mashpee Wampanoag’s to build a class III casino, us anti’s would be off celebrating a huge victory for our cause. Nope, not us….we are vigilant in our cause to protect and preserve the quality of life in our little corner of the world. If the Mashpee Wampanoag Casino investors do actually go ahead with this “resort” if the land is placed into trust -- well then we will need to fight even harder to make sure they answer for all the impacts directly related to the bingo hall resort. One of those impacts is pollution of our natural environment from on-reservation trash generation and off-reservation trash disposal. I cannot even begin to know how much trash will be generated by a bingo hall resort touting a 1,000 room hotel, restaurants, gas station, 10,000 seat stadium, golf course, waterpark and retail stores, but I can give you some information about trash generation in the US as a whole and try to guesstimate trash generation at the bingo resort.

In 2006, US residents, businesses, and institutions produced more than 251 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW), which is approximately 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day. – US EPA

From what I have read on the subject, every year, the United States generates approximately 230 million tons of trash-- about 4.6 pounds per person per day. Less than one-quarter of it is recycled while the rest is incinerated or buried in landfills and according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, many of the country's landfills have been closed for one or both of these two reasons:

-- They were full.
-- They were contaminating groundwater.

Incineration, such as is done at the Semass Resource Recovery Facility in Rochester is the most viable option, but it also has its impacts. Incineration does generate reusable energy, but at a cost--it has the potential to release toxins into the air and it creates a by-product called fly ash that requires disposal in landfills.

The Mashpee Tribe wants to build a facility to the likes of Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods in Connectitcut. Foxwoods casino is the largest casino in the world, operating 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The casino averages around 40,000 visitors a day. If the Mashpee Wampanoag’s build a casino-resort, then their casino may very well generate up to 92 tons of trash per day or 33,580 tons of trash per year. A 40% recycling rate from the facility would be 13,432 tons recycled….leaving 20,148 tons of trash per year to dispose of (or 55 tons per day).

Since they really can only build a bingo hall at this point, lets say that they average about half the number of people that frequent Foxwoods and they recycle 40% of their municipal solid waste stream….they still have the potential to generate over 10,000 tons of trash per year (approximately 28 tons of trash per day). This averages out to be 1% of the total annual tons of trash received by SEMASS. Now I understand that 1% doesn’t sound all that bad, but consider this:

Semass Resource Recovery Facility in Rochester receives approximately 1 Million tons of municipal solid waste per year from 60 participating communities in Cape Cod, Southeastern Massachusetts and the Boston Metropolitan area. If you do the math, each community on average contributes 16,000 tons of trash to the facility per year (43 tons per day)…this bingo resort has the potential to generate half as much municipal solid waste in a day as an entire community if they recycle 40% of their waste stream.

Yet according to the Middleboro CRAC….err, I mean RAC (heck, after Thursday’s vote they can now actually accurately call themselves a resort advisory committee), trash is a non-issue not worthy of discussion or even mentioning in the Casino Resort No-Impact Report. Middleboro Town Selectman Adam Bond isn’t concerned about trash either…well, as long as it doesn’t stay in Middleboro, that is. So…..where is all this trash going to go?? My best guess is the Seamass Resource Recovery Facility in Rochester where it will be incinerated and the fly ash from incineration will go directly to the Carver-Marion-Wareham Ash Landfill located on Federal Road in Carver. Honestly, it would have been nice if the Middleboro BOS or CRAC at least acknowledged the fact that a huge amount of trash will be generated and need to be disposed of in other communities.

Incineration of municipal solid waste and subsequent safe disposal of the fly ash is an expensive process that is not without it’s own risks. North Carver residents are already intimately familiar with the consequences of a leaking landfill on water supplies and the unknown increase in trash going to SEMASS from the Bingo Hall Resort means an increase in fly ash going to Carver for landfill. I would think that at the very least, the Tribe needs to disclose what their anticipated waste stream generation rates are going to be as well as disclose any type of recycling and recovery operations they plan on implementing to minimize the impacts on these communities. Will SEMASS need to expand it’s operations again to accommodate this trash? Will the Carver landfill be able to take the fly ash? I don’t know….heck, I don’t even know how much trash will be generated, I can only guess….but I’d sure as heck like to know. We in the surrounding communities need to be heard on these issues and be given some answers.

Please write a letter to the BIA expressing your environmental concerns regarding the land-in-trust application. Better yet, go to the BIA hearing on March 25th at the Middleboro high school at 6:00 PM and make a statement about your concerns. If you aren’t able to go to the hearing, don’t fret….send a statement of concern to:

Franklin Keel, Regional Director
Eastern Regional Office
Bureau of Indian Affairs
545 Marriott Drive, Suite 700
Nashville, TN 37214

This hearing scheduled for March 25th is not the end all say all of the environmental impacts. The Tribe will need to submit a draft Environmental Impact Statement to the EPA, who will in turn publish the draft EIS in the Federal Register along with the dates for the public comment period. There are going to be direct and immediate negative environmental impacts to our communities regardless of what scale of bingo hall resort is built. The Federal Register printed the following outline to the plan for the Middleboro site:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian AffairsNotice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Trust Acquisition of an Initial Reservation for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in the Town of Mashpee, Barnstable County, and Town of Middleboro, Plymouth County, MA, Including a Gaming Facility at the Middleboro Property

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Notice

SUMMARY: This notice advises the public that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) as Lead Agency, with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (Tribe) as Cooperating Agency, will be gathering information needed for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed trust acquisition of approximately 679 acres of land as the Tribe's initial reservation. The proposed acquisition includes approximately 140 acres in the Town of Mashpee, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, and approximately 539 acres in the Town of Middleboro, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. The property in Mashpee would be used for tribal administrative and cultural purposes and housing for tribal members. For the property in Middleboro, the Tribe plans the construction of a gaming facility with related facilities. The purposes of the proposed federal action are to provide a land base for the Tribe and to help meet the economic needs of the Tribe and its members. This notice also announces public scoping meetings to identify potential issues, alternatives and content for inclusion in the EIS.

The properties in Middleboro, a number of contiguous parcels totaling approximately 539 acres, are located along Route 44, about 3.5 miles east of exit 6 on Interstate 495. Although the eventual size and scope of the facilities may be modified based on information obtained through the EIS process, the Tribe's current plans for the Middleboro land include the construction of a destination resort and gaming facility, with a 750 to 1500 room hotel, restaurants and food court with a variety of offerings, a 5,000 to 10,000 seat entertainment venue, approximately 80,000 square feet of convention event space, retail shops, a service station, a warehouse and employee services. The project also includes plans for Native American cultural attractions and for recreational facilities, such as a spa, golf course and water park. In addition, there would be approximately 10,000 parking spaces, the majority of which would be in parking garages or under the casino.The proposed federal action encompasses all of the various federal approvals required to implement the Tribe's fee-to-trust application. Areas of environmental concern identified so far for analysis in the EIS include water resources and wetlands, stormwater management and erosion control, air quality, biological resources, historic properties and other cultural resources, socioeconomic conditions, traffic and transportation, land use, public utilities and services, noise, lighting, hazardous materials, environmental justice, visual resources and aesthetics, and cumulative impacts. The range of issues and alternatives addressed in the EIS may be expanded or reduced, based on comments received in response to this notice and from the public scoping meetings.

Public Comment Availability

Comments, including names and addresses of respondents, will be available for public review at the mailing address shown in the ADDRESSES section, during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying information- -may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.DATES: Written comments on the scope and implementation of this proposal must arrive by April 9, 2008. The public scoping meetings will be held March 25 and March 26, 2008, starting at 6 p.m. and continuing until all those who register to make statements have been heard.ADDRESSES: You may mail, hand carry or fax written comments to Franklin Keel, Regional Director, Eastern Regional Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 545 Marriott Drive, Suite 700, Nashville, Tennessee 37214, fax (615) 564-6550.The March 25, 2008, meeting will be at the Middlboro High School Auditorium, 71 East Grove Street, Middleboro, Massachusetts. The March 26, 2008, meeting will be at the Mashpee High School Auditorium.

We need to hold the Tribe and the investors accountable for ensuring every effort and technology is utilized to minimize or negate environmental impact to our communities due to the Tribe’s plan for the Middleboro land as described in the Federal Register. There is no doubt that this pristine landscape will be bulldozed to accommodate a gambling resort. There will be irreversible destruction of forested wetlands and natural habitats relied upon by wildlife, there will be negative impacts to our quality of life, and yes…there will impacts on our communities from the trash and litter too. This plan submitted to the BIA by the Mashpee Wampanoag Indians will have a direct negative environmental impact on the site, the host Town and the surrounding communities if it placed in trust as an initial reservation. To think otherwise is rubbish.

In America today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops. ~Paul Brooks, The Pursuit of Wilderness, 1971