Plainfield Trash Facts

The facts on the proposed trash plant
Plainfield, Connecticut

Local impacts

Traffic, Road Wear, Noise, and Odor

The short answer

A plant that takes in more than 1,800 tons of waste a day is fed almost entirely by heavy trucks, and heavy trucks are the quality-of-life problem residents raise most.9 Federal law defines a heavy truck as up to 80,000 pounds gross weight,1 and road damage rises with roughly the fourth power of axle load — so a single loaded truck can wear pavement as much as thousands of cars.2 The developer’s own August 2026 petition puts it at “around 120 loads per weekday,” with up to 2,500 tons on a single day — more than the “over 100 garbage trucks a day” the two town committees had estimated.148 Connecticut’s noise rule limits the plant’s stationary equipment but expressly excludes trucks in transit;4 its odor rule can declare an odor a nuisance at a 7-to-1 dilution.5 The EPA’s own manual finds that at facilities like this, “traffic causes the most significant offsite environmental impacts.”6

This page sets the quality-of-life concerns residents raise — trucks, road wear, noise and smell — against the actual engineering and regulatory record. Where a number can be tied to a federal standard, a peer-reviewed study or a Connecticut regulation, it is. The daily truck count is no longer an estimate: the developer has now filed its own figure.

Part one

The Trucks

Everything the plant processes arrives by road. The developer’s own figure, filed with the State, is more than 1,800 tons of solid waste per day, five days a week — up to 468,000 tons a year.9 That volume has to be carried in, and residual ash has to be carried out, by truck.

  • The developer’s own figure: SMART’s August 7, 2026 petition states the facility would take “around 120 loads per weekday” at an average 1,800 tons a day and about 15 tons per delivery, with up to 2,500 tons on a single day.14 Plainfield’s Republican and Democratic town committees had earlier described “over 100 garbage trucks traveling daily between 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. through peaceful neighborhoods” — an estimate the developer’s filing now exceeds. A traffic study by SLR, dated 2024, is filed with the petition as Exhibit N and concluded that “no significant impacts to traffic are expected.”14 We have not independently reviewed that study.8
  • What is not an estimate is the federal weight of the trucks involved. Under 23 CFR 658.17, the maximum gross vehicle weight on the Interstate system is 80,000 pounds, with limits of 20,000 pounds on a single axle and 34,000 pounds on a tandem axle. That is the official definition of the heavy trucks that serve a facility of this kind.1
  • The federal government’s own guidance is blunt about where the impact lands. EPA’s Waste Transfer Stations: A Manual for Decision-Making states that “traffic causes the most significant offsite environmental impacts associated with larger waste transfer stations,” and warns that truck queuing on public streets “blocks traffic… and in some cases, causes damage to streets not designed for heavy vehicles.”6

The traffic study’s own total: 635 vehicle trips a day

Exhibit N is the traffic study itself, prepared for O&G Industries by SLR and dated August 6, 2024. Its Table 2 estimates daily site-generated traffic, and the totals are larger than the delivery figure quoted in the petition body, because they count every vehicle rather than every load.17

Daily site-generated traffic estimates, from SLR’s Table 2. Each vehicle is assumed to enter and exit once.17
Type of tripEnteringExitingTotal trips
Inbound material120120240
Outbound ash101020
Employee commute135120255
Miscellaneous6060120
Total daily trips325310635
  • The 120 figure is loads, not trips. SLR counts the same 120 deliveries as 240 truck trips, because each truck arrives and leaves. Adding ash haulage, employees and miscellaneous traffic gives 635 vehicle trips a day.17
  • Ash leaves by truck too, and the tonnage is now public. SLR states the facility “is estimated to generate an upwards of 100 tons/day of Ash,” carried by about ten 15-to-20-ton dump trucks a day.17
  • Around 150 people would work there, across three shifts. SLR assumes 55 employees on the main shift, 55 on the second and 40 on the third, with shift changes between 5 and 6 a.m. and between 1 and 2 p.m.17
  • The trip estimate is not from the standard reference. SLR states that site traffic “cannot be estimated with statistical data published in the Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Manual since the data for the proposed land use is not available.” It instead counted vehicles at a comparable facility, WIN Waste Innovations in Bridgeport, on March 6, 2024, and applied those hourly patterns here.17 That is a reasonable method in the absence of published data, and it means the figures rest on one day of observation at a different plant.
  • The study also records the existing road. Route 12 carried an annual average of 6,429 vehicles a day at the nearby state count location, and 85th-percentile speeds past the site were 53 mph northbound and 49 mph southbound. The Connecticut Crash Data Repository recorded 27 crashes in the study area between December 2018 and January 2024, one involving a suspected serious injury.17

Part two

Road Wear: the Fourth-Power Law

The reason heavy trucks matter to a town’s roads is not intuition — it is a settled piece of pavement engineering. Damage does not rise in proportion to weight; it rises with roughly the fourth power of the load on each axle.

  • The Federal Highway Administration states the rule directly: pavement damage “is related to the fourth power of the axle load,” so that a 10-ton axle is about 160,000 times more damaging than a half-ton axle. FHWA also finds that the heaviest truck combinations pay only about half of their true share of road costs.2
  • The standard federal unit for this is the Equivalent Single Axle Load (ESAL): one ESAL is one pass of an 18,000-pound single axle. Truck volume is converted into pavement damage by counting ESALs, which is why a handful of loaded trucks can outweigh an entire day of car traffic in wear terms.3
  • A peer-reviewed re-analysis of the original AASHO Road Test data by Guler and Madanat (2011) found the true single-axle damage exponent for fatigue cracking is about 8.49 — even higher than the fourth power the standard rule assumes. On that finding, heavy trucks are more damaging than the conventional formula credits, not less.7
How road-wear scales with weight, from the federal standard and the peer-reviewed record.
MeasureFigureSource
Heavy-truck gross weight (federal max)80,000 lb (20,000 single-axle / 34,000 tandem)23 CFR 658.171
Damage vs. axle load~ fourth power; 10-ton axle ~160,000× a half-ton axleFHWA2
Standard damage unit (ESAL)1 ESAL = one pass of an 18,000-lb axleFHWA TMG3
True fatigue-cracking exponent~8.49 (higher than the assumed fourth power)Guler & Madanat 20117
Share of road cost heaviest trucks payabout half their true shareFHWA2

How heavy a heavy truck is, by federal law

Federal maximum weights for the trucks that would serve the plant (pounds).

1 ESAL = 18,000 lb Gross vehicle 80,000 lb Tandem axle 34,000 lb Single axle 20,000 lb 0 80,000 lb

Source: 23 CFR 658.17, maximum weights on the Interstate system. law.cornell.edu (CFR) The 18,000-lb ESAL reference axle is defined in FHWA’s Traffic Monitoring Guide. fhwa.dot.gov

Data
Federal maximum truck weights (23 CFR 658.17) with the ESAL reference axle
Axle or vehicleFederal weight
Gross vehicle80,000 lb
Tandem axle34,000 lb
Single axle20,000 lb
ESAL reference axle18,000 lb

The developer’s own studies

What SMART’s Consultants Found

The August 7, 2026 petition came with seventeen exhibits, including a sound assessment and an air quality report prepared for SMART by its own consultants. They are the developer’s evidence, not ours. Read straight, they support some resident concerns and cut against others, and both are set out here.

Nine groups of homes, the nearest fifty feet from the property line

The sound assessment, prepared by TRC and dated November 2025, identifies nine groups of noise-sensitive areas around the site, all residences. It lists the nearest as approximately 50 feet from the property line (two groups, to the north), with others at 100, 175, 200, 350 and 400 feet.15 Existing background sound at those locations was measured at 33.9 to 42.0 dBA, which is a quiet rural baseline.15

Predicted to stay under the legal limit, and to be clearly noticeable at several homes

Both halves of that sentence come from the same report, and both matter.

  • Under the limit. The modelling predicts operational sound of 19.9 to 43.7 dBA at the nearby noise-sensitive areas, which TRC states “is below the State of Connecticut limits of 61 dBA in the daytime and 51 dBA in the nighttime.”15
  • But a noticeable change at four groups. Because the existing background is so quiet, the predicted increase is +6.3 dBA at Group 6, +7.9 dBA at Group 7, +2.9 dBA at Group 8 and +5.5 dBA at Group 9.15 The same report’s own guidance states that “a 3 dB increase is just barely perceptible, while a 5 dB change is clearly noticeable.”15 Three of those four increases are at or above that clearly-noticeable threshold. TRC concludes that increases at Groups 6 through 9 “may be perceptible depending on ambient conditions but sound levels will remain below recommended exposure thresholds.”15
  • What the modelling does not cover. These figures are for the facility’s equipment. Connecticut’s noise regulation excludes trucks in transit, so the haul traffic on public roads is outside both the rule and this model.4 The modelled case is also described as unmitigated operation.15

By the developer’s own accounting, trucks are the largest single source of coarse particulate

SMART’s air quality report tabulates the facility’s potential to emit. Of a total 33.64 tons per year of PM10, it attributes 25.4 tons — about three quarters — to vehicle fugitive road dust, more than the main boiler stack and every other source combined. Road dust also accounts for 6.35 of the 15.01 tons per year of PM2.5.16 That is the developer’s own table, and it places the largest coarse-particle source in the traffic rather than the smokestack.

Part three

Noise — and What the Rule Does Not Cover

Connecticut does regulate noise, but it is important to be precise about what the rule reaches, because the honest answer cuts against a common assumption.

  • Under Connecticut’s noise regulations, RCSA 22a-69, an industrial site is a Class C noise zone. Noise emitted from a Class C zone into an adjacent Class A residential zone is capped at 61 dBA during the day and 51 dBA at night. These are the limits that would apply to the plant’s stationary equipment measured at a neighboring home.4
  • The important caveat, stated plainly: the same regulation excludes noise from mobile sources. Trucks in transit on public roads are not governed by these dBA limits — the only vehicle noise the rule reaches is a truck parked at a loading dock with its engine off. So RCSA 22a-69 governs the plant’s fixed machinery, not the road-traffic noise residents are most likely to hear.4
  • On the machinery itself, the federal manual is again direct: “Heavy truck traffic and the operation of heavy-duty facility equipment are the primary sources of noise from a transfer station,” naming engines, backup alarms, hydraulic units, and the banging of buckets and blades on concrete and steel.6

Connecticut’s noise cap on the plant’s machinery

RCSA 22a-69 limit from a Class C industrial zone into a Class A residential zone; excludes trucks in transit (dBA).

Daytime 61 dBA Nighttime 51 dBA 0 70 dBA

Source: RCSA 22a-69, “Control of Noise” (Class C industrial into Class A residential, Sec. 22a-69-2.5 and 3.5); the limits exclude trucks in transit on public roads. eregulations.ct.gov

Data
RCSA 22a-69 noise limit, Class C industrial into Class A residential
PeriodLimit
Daytime limit61 dBA
Nighttime limit51 dBA

Because the rule does not reach the road-traffic noise, it is worth stating plainly what the independent record says about that noise on its own terms. These are population-level associations from the general research literature; they are not a prediction that this plant will make any specific person ill.

  • Health authorities set a guideline for road-traffic noise. The World Health Organization’s Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region (2018) recommend that average road-traffic noise stay below 53 decibels over the day-evening-night period and 45 decibels at night to protect health.10
  • The strongest evidence is for the heart and for sleep. WHO rates the evidence that road-traffic noise raises cardiovascular risk and disturbs sleep as its highest-quality findings; effects on mental health and well-being are treated as a growing but less-certain area.10
  • Peer-reviewed and agency research also associates traffic noise with depression and anxiety. A Finnish register study that followed people from childhood into adulthood found long-term residential traffic noise above 53 dB associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety in adolescents and young adults, after adjusting for air pollution and green space.11 Reviewing the field in 2026, the European Environment Agency likewise reports that rising road-traffic noise is correlated with measurable increases in depression and anxiety.12
  • The most rigorous study to date points the same way, using methods built to test cause, not just correlation. A 19-year study of 31,387 people across Australia, published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2022, used instrumental-variable and fixed-effects methods chosen specifically to reduce reverse causation and hidden confounding, the usual weaknesses of a simple association. It found residential noise associated with worse mental health, strongest for traffic noise, and, tellingly, mental health improved when noise fell over time. This is self-reported residential noise across a national panel rather than a measurement at this site, but it is stronger evidence than a correlation that traffic noise itself affects mental health.13

What health authorities recommend road-traffic noise stay under

World Health Organization health-based guideline for average road-traffic noise (decibels). This is a long-term average measure, and is not directly comparable to the Connecticut property-line limit shown above.

Day-evening-night 53 dB Night 45 dB 0 70 dB

Source: World Health Organization, Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region (2018): recommended maximum average road-traffic noise of 53 dB (Lden, day-evening-night) and 45 dB (Lnight). A long-term average health guideline, a different measure from the Connecticut RCSA property-line limit above. who.int

Data
WHO recommended maximum average road-traffic noise (2018)
PeriodGuideline
Day-evening-night (Lden)53 dB
Night (Lnight)45 dB

Part four

Odor

Odor is the one impact with a Connecticut standard residents can point to directly, and it applies to the plant as a stationary source.

  • Under RCSA 22a-174-23, an odor in the ambient air is presumed to be a nuisance if, on at least three samples in a one-hour period (each separated by at least fifteen minutes), the odor is still detectable after being diluted seven parts clean air to one part sampled air — the “7-to-1” or D/T = 7 test. Once that presumption is established, the burden shifts to the owner or operator to rebut it, and Table 23-1 of the regulation sets concentration limits for specific compounds.5
  • That the input has odor potential is not in dispute. EPA’s manual notes that “MSW, food waste, and certain yard wastes such as grass have a high potential for odor generation,” and that odors “might increase during warm or wet weather.”6
Connecticut’s noise and odor standards, and what each one reaches.
StandardWhat it setsWhat it covers / excludes
RCSA 22a-69 (noise)61 dBA day / 51 dBA night from a Class C industrial zone into a Class A residential zone4Covers the plant’s stationary equipment; excludes trucks in transit on public roads4
RCSA 22a-174-23 (odor)Nuisance if detectable at 7:1 dilution on 3+ samples in an hour; burden then shifts to the operator5Applies to the plant as a stationary odor source; MSW and food waste rated high odor potential by EPA6

The odor plan, and what it says about the trucks

Exhibit H is SMART’s odor control plan, written against the same Connecticut rule described above. Two things in it are worth reading closely.18

  • The company states it cannot control the haul trucks. In its own words: the trucks “will be owned and operated by others and are generally the same MSW collection trucks that operate daily throughout CT. SMART lacks the ability to regulate their condition, emissions, routes and schedules which are determined by individual municipal pick-up and delivery contracts, routing and scheduling.”18 SMART proposes scheduling and contract terms to manage them, but the fleet is not its own.
  • The odor rule excludes trucks too. The regulation quoted in full in Exhibit H ends with subsection (k): “The provisions of this section shall not apply to mobile sources.”18 So the same gap already noted for noise applies to smell: the rule reaches the plant’s equipment, not the trucks on the public road.
  • Throughput at the tipping building. Thirteen unloading bays handling roughly 18 loads per hour, with deliveries scheduled so no load waits more than 30 minutes and no trip exceeds an hour on site, feeding a 20-foot deep storage pit under negative pressure.18
  • Biofiltration was added after the public meeting. The report marks its additions in italics as responses to comments raised at the CT Environmental Justice public meeting, including a commitment to treat tipping-area air through biofilters before it is discharged outdoors.18

One mechanism in the rule is worth knowing because it depends on residents. The commissioner may not rely on air-quality modelling alone to find an odor violation “unless the commissioner has received ten or more written complaints within ninety (90) consecutive days from separate households.”18

Questions and answers

Frequently Asked Questions

How many trucks would the plant bring each day?

There is now a developer figure, and it is higher than the residents’ estimate. In its August 7, 2026 Siting Council petition, SMART states that at an average 1,800 tons a day and about 15 tons per delivery the facility would take “around 120 loads per weekday,” with a maximum acceptance rate of 2,500 tons on a single day. A load is a delivery, so each one is a truck arriving and later leaving.14 For comparison, Plainfield’s Republican and Democratic town committees had jointly estimated “over 100 garbage trucks” a day between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., which the developer’s own filing now exceeds.8 A traffic study by SLR, dated 2024, is filed with the petition as Exhibit N; it concluded that “no significant impacts to traffic are expected.”14 What is certain is that the developer’s own filed throughput is more than 1,800 tons of waste per day, all of which moves by road.9

Why do heavy trucks damage roads so much more than cars?

Because pavement damage rises with roughly the fourth power of axle load. FHWA states a 10-ton axle is about 160,000 times more damaging than a half-ton axle, and a peer-reviewed re-analysis puts the true exponent near 8.49 — higher still. One loaded truck can equal thousands of car passes in road wear.27

Do Connecticut’s noise limits cover the trucks on the road?

No. RCSA 22a-69 sets dBA limits for the plant’s stationary equipment (61 dBA day / 51 dBA night into a residential zone), but it expressly excludes mobile sources. Trucks in transit on public roads are not covered by those limits; only a truck idling parked at a dock is treated as part of the fixed source.4

Is traffic noise itself a health issue?

Health authorities treat it as one. The World Health Organization recommends that average road-traffic noise stay below 53 decibels day-evening-night and 45 at night, and rates the evidence that such noise raises cardiovascular risk and disturbs sleep as its strongest. Peer-reviewed research and the European Environment Agency also associate higher road-traffic noise with increased depression and anxiety. These are population-level associations, not a prediction about any one person.101112

Is there any standard residents can use against plant odor?

Yes. Under RCSA 22a-174-23, an odor is presumed a nuisance if it is still detectable after a 7-to-1 dilution on at least three samples within an hour. Once that is shown, the burden shifts to the operator to rebut it.5

What does the federal government say the biggest local impact is?

EPA’s waste-transfer-station manual states that “traffic causes the most significant offsite environmental impacts” at larger waste facilities, and identifies heavy trucks and heavy-duty equipment as the primary sources of noise.6

Sources

Where These Facts Come From

Official & regulatory sources

  1. U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, 23 CFR 658.17, “Weight” (maximum gross vehicle weight of 80,000 pounds on the Interstate system; 20,000 pounds on a single axle and 34,000 pounds on a tandem axle). law.cornell.edu (CFR)
  2. U.S. Federal Highway Administration, “The Heavy Vehicle Use Tax” (Highway Cost Allocation) (pavement damage related to the fourth power of axle load; a 10-ton axle about 160,000 times more damaging than a half-ton axle; heaviest truck combinations pay about half their true share of road costs). fhwa.dot.gov
  3. U.S. Federal Highway Administration, Traffic Monitoring Guide (definition of the Equivalent Single Axle Load: 1 ESAL equals one pass of an 18,000-pound single axle, the standard federal unit for converting truck volume into pavement damage). fhwa.dot.gov
  4. Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, RCSA 22a-69, “Control of Noise” (a Class C industrial zone into a Class A residential zone is limited to 61 dBA day / 51 dBA night, Sec. 22a-69-2.5 and 3.5; the standards exclude noise from mobile sources except a truck parked at a loading dock with engine off, Sec. 22a-69-1.7(i)). eregulations.ct.gov; Class C zone: Sec. 22a-69-2.5
  5. Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, RCSA 22a-174-23, “Control of odors” (an odor is presumed a nuisance if detectable after a dilution of seven parts clean air to one part sampled air on at least three samples in a one-hour period, each separated by at least fifteen minutes; the burden of rebutting the presumption is on the owner or operator; Table 23-1 sets compound limits). eregulations.ct.gov
  6. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Waste Transfer Stations: A Manual for Decision-Making, EPA530-R-02-002 (2002) (“Traffic causes the most significant offsite environmental impacts associated with larger waste transfer stations”; “Heavy truck traffic and the operation of heavy-duty facility equipment are the primary sources of noise from a transfer station”; “MSW, food waste, and certain yard wastes such as grass have a high potential for odor generation”). Read the archived document and transcript

Scientific & technical studies

  1. Y. Guler and S. Madanat, “Axle Load Power for Pavement Fatigue Cracking: Empirical Estimation and Policy Implications,” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2225 (2011), pp. 22–29 (re-analysis of AASHO Road Test data finds a true single-axle fatigue-cracking damage exponent of about 8.49, higher than the conventional fourth power). DOI: 10.3141/2225-03

News coverage

  1. Hartford Courant via Government Technology, “Connecticut Residents Object to Plans for High-Tech Trash Plant” (joint Republican and Democratic town-committee statement describing “over 100 garbage trucks traveling daily between 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. through peaceful neighborhoods”; presented here as a resident and town-committee estimate). govtech.com
  2. Norwich Bulletin via Yahoo News, “Plant to convert trash to gas, electricity to be pitched in Plainfield” (developer’s stated throughput of more than 1,800 tons per day, five days a week, and about 468,000 tons per year). yahoo.com

Noise, health & guidelines

  1. World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region (2018) (recommended maximum average road-traffic noise of 53 dB Lden over the day-evening-night period and 45 dB Lnight at night to protect health; the evidence for cardiovascular effects and sleep disturbance is rated highest quality, with effects on mental health and well-being treated as a growing area). who.int
  2. Y. He, M. Lahti-Pulkkinen, J. Metsälä, et al., “Residential exposure to traffic noise and incidence of depression and anxiety from childhood through adulthood: a Finnish register study,” Environmental Research 285 (2025) 122443 (long-term residential traffic noise above 53 dB associated with higher risks of depression and anxiety among adolescents and young adults, after adjustment for air pollution and green space). DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2025.122443
  3. European Environment Agency, Pollution and Mental Health: Current Scientific Evidence (2026) (agency review reporting that rising road-traffic noise is correlated with measurable increases in the risk of depression and anxiety). eea.europa.eu
  4. A. Li, E. Martino, A. Mansour, R. Bentley, “Environmental Noise Exposure and Mental Health: Evidence From a Population-Based Longitudinal Study,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 63, no. 2 (2022) e39–e48 (19-year Australian national panel of 31,387 respondents; using instrumental-variable and fixed-effects methods to strengthen causal inference over a simple association, environmental noise was associated with worse mental health, most strongly for traffic noise, and mental health improved when noise exposure fell over time). DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2022.02.020
  5. SMART Technology Systems, LLC, Petition for a Declaratory Ruling That No Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need Is Required, filed with the Connecticut Siting Council August 7, 2026 (the applicant’s own filing). Section 5.10.2 states that at an average 1,800 tons per weekday and about 15 tons per delivery the facility would take “around 120 loads per weekday,” against a rated capacity of “less than 2,500 tons per single day.” Section 5.10.3 identifies a 2024 traffic study by SLR filed as Exhibit N, and section 5.10.4 states that study “concluded that no significant impacts to traffic are expected.”
  6. TRC Environmental Corporation for SMART Technology Systems, LLC, Sound Impact Assessment, November 2025, filed as Exhibit J to Connecticut Siting Council Petition No. 1719 (the developer’s own consultant report; read directly). Table 3.1-1 lists nine noise-sensitive area groups, the nearest approximately 50 feet from the property line; Table 6.2-1 gives existing, modelled, combined and increase values at each; section 7.0 states operational sound of 19.9 to 43.7 dBA, “below the State of Connecticut limits of 61 dBA in the daytime and 51 dBA in the nighttime,” with increases at Groups 6 through 9 that “may be perceptible.” Section 2.0 supplies the perceptibility scale quoted.
  7. SMART Technologies, Inc., Air Quality Report, November 2025 (cover dated January 2026), filed as Exhibit F to Connecticut Siting Council Petition No. 1719. Table 2, Potential to Emit Summary, gives annual facility totals in tons per year including PM10 33.64, PM2.5 15.01, SO2 59.43, NOx 161.0, CO 44.5, VOC 18.53, CO2e 493,165, total HAP 0.72 and lead 0.02, and attributes 25.4 tons of the PM10 and 6.35 tons of the PM2.5 to vehicle fugitive road dust.
  8. SLR International Corporation for O&G Industries, Inc., Traffic Study — SMART Technology Systems Waste Processing Facility, dated August 6, 2024 (SLR project 141.V11103.00119), filed as Exhibit N to Connecticut Siting Council Petition No. 1719 (the developer’s own consultant report; read directly). Table 2, Daily Site-Generated Traffic Estimates, gives 240 inbound-material trips, 20 outbound-ash trips, 255 employee-commute trips and 120 miscellaneous trips, totalling 635 daily trips, and states each vehicle is assumed to enter and exit once. The notes to Table 2 give the ash figure of “upwards of 100 tons/day” and the shift staffing of 55, 55 and 40. The Trip Generation section records that ITE data was unavailable for this land use and that hourly patterns were taken from counts at WIN Waste Innovations, Bridgeport, on March 6, 2024. The Roadway Crash Data and Traffic Volume sections give the 27 crashes (December 31, 2018 to January 1, 2024), the Route 12 AADT of 6,429, and 85th-percentile speeds of 53 mph northbound and 49 mph southbound.
  9. SMART Technologies, Inc., Odor Control Plan (Compliance with CT Sec. 22a-174-23), filed as Exhibit H to Connecticut Siting Council Petition No. 1719 (the developer’s own report; read directly). Section 2.0 states SMART “lacks the ability to regulate” the condition, emissions, routes and schedules of the MSW haul trucks, and gives the 13 unloading bays, ~18 loads per hour, 30-minute wait and 1-hour on-site targets. Section 3.0 gives the 20-foot tipping pit and the biofiltration commitment, with post-public-meeting additions marked in italics. The report reproduces RCSA 22a-174-23 in full, including subsection (f) on the ten-complaint threshold and subsection (k), “The provisions of this section shall not apply to mobile sources.”

See the full evidence library →