Solar project proposed for closed Post Mills landfill on life support

An order issued late last week by the Vermont Public Utility Commission keeps alive the possibility – in theory at least – that a solar array may eventually be built on the closed landfill in Post Mills, many years after it was initially proposed. The ruling extended until February, 2026 the deadline for the project to become operational. The deadline extension was the third that the project has received since the PUC granted it a permit in February, 2022, each required to keep it alive, since otherwise the permit would expire after a year. 

This project has been plagued from the outset by two seemingly intractable problems, the first being that there is no living owner of the landfill. The second problem is that the landfill has contaminated the aquifer under and near it. Although a new owner would be relieved of some liability for that situation, responsibility for testing the groundwater for contaminants known to be in the water, including PFAS, is so expensive that the project would not be viable, at least without a public subsidy.

While the PUC’s decision to extend the deadline for a bit less than 10 months keeps the project on life support, there are no solutions on the horizon for the problems it has always faced. In fact, a path forward appears more elusive than at any time since the project was conceived. To understand why, here are some things to know.

Orange County Probate court had closed the estate of the late Frank Barker, the landfill’s owner, without transferring the site, an obvious liability, to another owner. That was an impediment to installation of a large solar array, a project envisioned for years by Thetford’s Energy Committee. Then an apparent breakthrough came in 2020, when Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation (GMEDC), with the blessing of the Selectboard and the Energy Committee, set out to resolve the ownership issue and clear the way for development of the solar project. 

GMEDC, one of twelve such nonprofit organizations in the state affiliated with the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, “assists businesses, municipalities and individuals to address development challenges, set goals and find funding.” GMEDC started the process of taking ownership of the site so that it could be leased to a solar developer. To that end, the probate court approved GMEDC’s request to re-open Barker’s estate and it appointed GMEDC as the new administrator.

As the prospective owner of the site, GMEDC signed a lease agreement with Thetford Post Mills Solar LLC (TPMS), a company created by Norwich Solar for the sole purpose of  developing a 500 kilowatt solar array on the closed landfill. If the project becomes operational, TPMS would pay GMEDC $10,000 per year.  TPMS applied to the PUC for a permit, which was granted in February, 2022.  Norwich Solar would make its money as the contractor to install and operate the solar project, if it is built. In October, 2022 Norwich Solar sold TPMS to a New York City investment company but retained its role as installer and operator of the project.

Of course, it would be unreasonable to assume ownership without protection from liability for the pollution caused by the landfill. With control of the landfill as administrator of the estate, GMEDC pursued those legal protections by enrolling the site in a state brownfield redevelopment program called BRELLA. 

BRELLA is a rigorous process to identify a site’s  environmental hazards and develop a Corrective Action Plan. Once the plan is implemented, then the site can receive BRELLA certification, which provides environmental liability protection. Certification, as well as the protection it provides, “runs with the land”, meaning the protection is transferred if the site is sold.

BRELLA is a lengthy and expensive process, in this case with delays due to the pandemic. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation provided some of the funding but most came from federal grants administered by Mount Ascutney Regional Commission.

BRELLA confirmed that the PFAS class of chemicals are present in some of the monitoring wells at the site, at levels above the Vermont groundwater enforcement standard, and far above the new federal standard, which the State has not yet adopted. The site assessment also identified an additional “emergent contaminant,” 1,4-dioxane.

While BRELLA relieves a new owner of state liability for contamination that occurred under a previous owner, it does not remove the responsibility for continued maintenance and testing. And there’s the fly in the ointment for this project. Sampling the groundwater from the monitoring wells and lab analysis for PFAS is very expensive. GMEDC’s environmental consultant estimated that it would cost five to six times more than the $10,000 fee it would receive from the solar project each year. And there would be no end in sight. PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because the tight carbon-fluorine bonds do not break down under normal environmental conditions.

Last September, the GMEDC board concluded that it could not afford to own the site and voted to withdraw as a prospective owner. This Spring the probate court granted GMEDC’s request to close the Barker estate and release the organization from its obligations as administrator. ​

Since 2021, the BRELLA process has cost about $80,000 in public money.  That figure does not include more than $35,000 that GMEDC has expended in legal fees.

Knowing all of that, the PUC granted Thetford Post Mills Solar an extension of less than 10 months to bring the landfill solar project to completion. To be clear, TPMS has a lease agreement with GMEDC, an organization that does not and will not own the site. There will be no owner unless some person or entity emerges to ask the probate court to reopen the Barker estate so as to transfer the site to a new owner. That process will presumably cost about as much as the $35,000 that GMEDC spent. And a new owner would face the same financial reality that GMEDC did: owning the landfill will cost far more than the revenue it will produce from a solar project.  

And there’s more.

A lapsed permit wouldn’t just require a developer to start over with a new application if ownership is resolved. Under a new law that takes effect next January 1, no solar project of the sort currently proposed would be permitted.

The project that was permitted in 2022 is described as a “group net metering” system. In 2024, the legislature passed Act 179 into law over the governor’s veto, which bans permits for group net metering projects unless all of the generated energy is used on the site or property immediately adjacent. There is nowhere near the electric demand at the Post Mills site to meet that condition. 

It’s not clear how this situation will be resolved. For the moment, the PUC has refused to pull the plug on what increasingly appears to be a zombie project.

As for who will foot the bill for the ongoing testing of groundwater at the landfill, that has been the State’s responsibility for more than 30 years.  Who will shoulder that obligation if a prospective owner doesn’t appear?  That will be the subject of a future Sidenote article.