Newburyport officials are requesting that Governor Deval Patrick release $3 million for maintenance of a privately owned landfill where the foul odor, residents say, has plagued them for about a decade.
Senator Kathleen O’Connor Ives said she added an amendment to the state’s environmental bond bill, which Patrick signed in August. She said it allocates $3 million toward “monitoring, maintenance, responding to future landfill problems, or to ensure public health and safety.”
O’Connor Ives, Representative Michael A. Costello, and the Newburyport City Council have written letters to the governor, who must sign off on the project before the city can access the funds.
“This doesn’t negate the landfill owner’s responsibility to properly close the landfill,” O’Connor Ives said recently. “But this fund would empower the city to respond to any public safety issues after the landfill is closed.”