State Green Lights Derby Transfer Station

A state official sent word Wednesday that Derby will receive a permit for its transfer station on Pine Street.

It is not clear when the city will re-open the facility.

A transfer station is a place where garbage and rubbish is dropped off by residents, sorted by workers and trucked away for final disposal.

The Board of Aldermen decided to close Derby’s transfer station last year, after officials learned the facility had been without a permit since it opened in 1996.

An official from the Waste Engineering Enforcement Division of the Department of Environmental Protection said the DEP signed and issued a permit Wednesday.

I have received, today, an e‑mail from the Department of Environmental Protection telling me the City of Derby’s application for the Municipal Transfer Station Permit has been signed and I should expect official notification with the permit in the mail within a couple of days,” Mayor Anthony Staffieri said in a statement.

According to Staffieri, the city was ordered to close its old landfill and incinerator in 1993.

The city then applied for a permit to build the transfer station in 1995.

However, the city never filed for a permit to operate the transfer station and the DEP never followed up, DEP honcho told the Valley Indy in December.

Staffieri said he became aware of the situation two years ago, after a consultant was hired to investigate the operation of the transfer station.

The city brought in Annex Associates — a private firm — to run the transfer station. That move displaced union workers who had been running the place.

A state labor board later told Derby to remove Annex and negotiate with the union.

The Board of Aldermen last month voted to again put the transfer station’s operation out to bid to private companies to lease.

Companies have until July 30 to submit bids. So far three companies have submitted bids.

Since the transfer station closed, Derby residents have been using a transfer station in Shelton.

DEP spokesman Dennis Schain confirmed the permit approval Wednesday. 

Click here to download a DEP document explaining what the city had to do to get the permit.

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