Vt. Compost told to halt operations

July 10, 2008

By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau

 Karl Hammer holds a handful of potting soil at his Vermont Compost Company facility in Montpelier.

MONTPELIER – The Natural Resources Board has told Karl Hammer to halt operations at Vermont Compost Co., located on Main Street a few miles outside of the state's capital city.

Hammer's company, along with the composting operation in Burlington's Intervale, have been used as examples of how to get food scraps out of the landfill and into people's gardens and farms.

 

But both have run into trouble with state regulators and neighbors. In Hammer's case the question at the root of the matter is whether his site in Montpelier is a farm – therefore outside the jurisdiction of the Act 250 land use rules – or a manufacturing company subject to them.

Early this year Hammer was told he needs a permit under the state's sweeping land use regulation to run the composting facility. He appealed that "jurisdictional opinion," but the Natural Resources Board has now declined to allow him to keep operating until that process is complete.

In addition to directing Hammer to "immediately cease any and all commercial composting operations," as well as "immediately remove all compost materials" and "all improvements constructed for any and all composting operations," the letter from the board levied an $18,000 fine against Vermont Compost Co.

It is possible for Hammer to appeal the decision.

"I really am not clear what it means," he said. "We are in the process of appealing the original (jurisdictional opinion)."

Hammer has 15 days to appeal the new order to the Environmental Court, which is already hearing the earlier appeal.

John Hasen, attorney for the Natural Resources Board, said the board is acting to halt what it believes is an ongoing violation of land use law.

"Mr. Hammer is currently in violation of Act 250," he said. "If he wants to come in and show he is exempt, he is welcome to do that."

The Legislature this year passed a law that exempted composting operations from Act 250 review for two years. However, that only applies to those sites that have a solid waste permit from the Agency of Natural Resources, which Hammer's Montpelier operation does not. He has a related plot in East Montpelier that does have such a permit, as does the Intervale.

In the past Hammer has argued his Montpelier site is a farm because he raises chickens and mules there and because he operates under contract with Fairmont Farms to process their cow Fairmont Farms to process their cow manure. That, he has said, means his compost company should be considered an agricultural use.

However, since the bulk of the material composted does not come from his own farm (or from the Montpelier site), the composting operation is not farming, the Natural Resources Board and the District Environmental Commission has ruled.

Part of Hammer's site could be considered a farm, but part of it is a compost manufacturing facility and therefore requires an Act 250 permit, regulators have said.

"He is in violation and should not be operating," Hasen said.

Meanwhile the fate of the Intervale Center is still up in the air. State and federal authorities have raised questions about the site being in a floodway, about damage to archeological sites from digging on the property and about other alleged violations.

State officials and those who are involved with the Intervale Center are now negotiating over the future of the project – which draws many tons of compostable waste from landfills – and whether a temporary site can be found so the composting operation can continue.

After a discussion by the Montpelier City Council, Hammer is in mediation with his neighbors, who have objected to food waste dropped on their property by birds foraging on his land, about his chickens roaming their property and other problems.

"I am hopeful that things will get better," said Barbara LaRosa, who lives next door. "We want basic respect for the property we pay taxes on."

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