“I don’t know yet,’’ the elder Motzkin said of a potential appeal. “I still don’t think we did anything wrong. I bought this property so I could run my trucks. It’s zoned industrial. I just don’t see how [the health board] can go against me like that.’’
The health board’s unanimous decision sustained the findings of a sound study that was conducted in November and found noise generated by nighttime operations at Empire Recycling violated the state environmental code and the town’s general bylaws 24 times during a seven-day period. The company operates 24 hours a day, six days a week.
Citing that study, public health director Richard Berube on Dec. 7 had ordered the company to draft and implement a plan of correction. Empire Recycling disputed the sound study’s findings and requested a hearing before the health board.
At Monday’s hearing, Empire Recycling’s attorney, James Dangora Sr., argued the sound study was flawed and claimed the noise ordinance is ambiguous. The health board rejected his claims by a vote of 4-0. The board’s vice chairman, Robert Reader, was not present.
“After many years, months, days, and hours, our persistence finally paid off last night,’’ said Martial Frechette, a member of the board of the neighboring Swanson Meadows residential townhouses. He said the board is eagerly awaiting the company’s correction plan.
In the meantime, Frechette said, he holds out hope that the health board’s decision will prompt the Zoning Board of Appeals to revisit the company’s expansion plans. Empire Recycling last year secured approval from the town Conservation Commission, Planning Board, and Zoning Board of Appeals to build a three-sided, 4,048-square-foot shed to house recyclable materials. The zoning board’s July approval of the project came with several conditions, including one that requires the company to comply with Billerica’s noise bylaw.
Empire Recycling has for many months been the subject of a steady stream of complaints from Swanson Meadows residents, who say loud banging generated by the facility often wakes them in the wee hours.
Seven Swanson Meadows residents, including Frechette, on Jan. 5 appealed the Planning Board’s Dec. 12 approval of Empire Recycling’s expansion project in Middlesex Superior Court, claiming the board’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious.’’ The Planning Board had rejected suggestions that it limit the facility’s hours of operation or require the company to build a noise barrier.
A Globe review of state records shows expansion of Empire Recycling’s 15,400-square-foot facility is necessary for the company to comply with a consent order issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in February 2011. State officials are demanding the company fully enclose its operations. The company had been cited for receiving and storing materials outside in violation of state regulations for solid waste facilities, Department of Environmental Protection records show.
