Controversial Trash Authority Starts Work

The following are consolidated excerpts from an article originally appearing on InsideInvestigator.org

On August 20, 2026, six board members of the Northwest Resource Recovery Authority (NRRA), an attorney, and a consultant hired by the NRRA held a special meeting in the offices of Goshen Town Hall to hold an executive session “to discuss legal matters related to hauler authorizations.”

The NRRA is in its second month of managing the Torrington Transfer Station, after Connecticut’s Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA), which previously owned and operated the station, officially dissolved in 2025. MIRA had previously operated Hartford’s trash-to-energy plant, and its dissolution meant much of Connecticut’s trash would be shipped by rail to dump sites in Pennsylvania and Ohio after being cycled through various transfer stations throughout the state. Having to ship trash out of state added to already-increasing tipping fees for haulers. Since 2019, tipping fees have risen by $56 per ton across the state. The NRRA was created, in part, to prevent those costs from rising further.

An offshoot of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG) with its 21 member municipalities, the NRRA counts only eight towns as members using the Torrington transfer station – the rest have largely signed with private hauler USA Waste & Recycling, including Torrington and Litchfield. USA Waste delivers its trash to its own transfer station in Winsted.

In 2024, Dan Jerram represented 11 towns in asking to join the Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority (HRRA). The HRRA Board indicated there were “too many unknown factors,” including the status of the Torrington transfer station and how HRRA would manage an “extended geographic footprint.” Nevertheless, the Torrington Transfer Station is up and running and receiving trash.

But that’s not to say that everything has run smoothly for the start-up authority. Several Freedom of Information complaints have been filed against the NRRA, raising transparency issues; many towns have signed long-term contracts with USA Waste, diminishing the amount of trash going to the Torrington Transfer Station and potentially escalating tipping fees, and Dan Jerram resigned from the Board in August. The question that has dogged the NRRA is whether the numbers will ultimately add up so that the NRRA can be self-supporting, or whether it will require continued state support.

“The Numbers are

Absolutely Sustainable.”

During debate over the conveyance of the Torrington transfer station, Rep. Kurt Vail questioned whether the NRRA will require a taxpayer subsidy. Rep. Horn responded: “There is no money contemplated in this. The numbers are absolutely sustainable long term, and the state will not be required to subsidize this transfer station. It’s fully backed by another well-established entity, the Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority.”

“It is nobody’s intention to pour money into a hole forever,” Horn said to Inside Investigator.

For years, MIRA had been subsidizing tipping fees. Without the subsidy – which in 2023 reduced tipping fees by $43.73 per ton – municipal solid waste tipping fees would not be “competitive with alternatives.” Even with the subsidy, MIRA’s tipping fees exceeded the “opt-out” price point at which municipalities could find alternatives, including towns like Torrington, Harwinton, and Litchfield, all of whom signed with USA Waste. Since those towns were no longer delivering trash to the Torrington station, the station began to require an operating subsidy. The MIRA Dissolution Authority (MDA) found the Torrington station would require a $1.3 million subsidy in 2025, and $1.37 million in 2026.

Since startup, the NRRA has received state funds: $100,000 from the General Fund, $350,000 through DEEP’s Sustainable Materials Management Grant program, and $500,000 in pass-through grants from the Office of Policy and Management. The NRRA is receiving another $200,000 from “a new regional service grant to NHCOG”, according to meeting minutes.

Although HRRA declined to accept NRRA towns into its authority in 2024, it approved allowing HRRA Executive Director Jennifer Heaton-Jones to assist the start-up. HRRA extended their Regional Waste and Recycling Agreement to include NRRA towns, and NRRA entered a memorandum of understanding with Interstate Waste Services (IWS), a large hauler contracted with HRRA. Heaton-Jones says HRRA’s outreach was “based on a desire to share our expertise and support neighboring communities.” Members of the NRRA pointed out that with HRRA and IWS’s involvement, trash from the Torrington Transfer Station is no longer shipped to Keystone, Pennsylvania, and is instead sent to a trash-to-energy plant in Bridgeport, which saves on costs.

Cornwall First Selectman Ridgway notes many towns were part of HRRA before joining MIRA, something he believes was a mistake. “Looking back that was a mistake for us to leave that organization [HRRA] because they give our neighbors better service and lower tipping fees,” Ridgway said. 

HRRA is bigger and more experienced than NRRA. Teaming up with HRRA works for the NRRA for now, but how strong NRRA’s numbers end up being will depend on buy-in from towns, and most contracts are with USA Waste.

Supporters say creating the NRRA was necessary to prevent a monopoly on services in the Northwest Hills, but whether the NRRA will be able to compete, and whether it will lower prices absent state support, is up for debate. “NRRA’s existence [is] already paying off to the extent that it is enabling some towns who chose not to participate in NRRA to get deals from haulers,” Horn said.

“Monopoly”

Right now, the NRRA is largely operating on pass-through grants. Their MOU with HRRA is allowing them to charge competitive tipping fees at roughly $120 per ton. As of July 16, the Torrington station was receiving waste from Canaan/Falls Village, North Canaan, Colebrook, Cornwall, Norfolk, Salisbury, and Sharon, along with a couple of small private haulers. Those seven municipalities have a combined population of a little more than 16,000 people, less than half that of Torrington alone.

Although Torrington initially spearheaded the NRRA, the city was already locked into an agreement with USA Waste. Under Mayor Molly Spino, Torrington signed a 10-year contract with USA Waste. Harwinton also signed a 10-year deal, as did Litchfield. Even Goshen, whose First Selectman sits on the NRRA board, signed a 10-year contract with USA Waste in July 2026, just as the NRRA took possession of the Torrington Transfer Station. Winsted, Barkhamsted, and New Hartford use USA Waste as a hauling company and have their own regional transfer station.

The ubiquity of USA Waste is largely the reason the NRRA was created; town leaders worried about a potential monopoly. “If you don’t have a public option, in 10 years who’s to say that waste haulers are now three times what they should have been?” Zabel said.

Harwinton First Selectman Michael Criss said USA Waste’s 10-year contract offered an opt-out and the ability to match rates if NRRA’s rate is lower. “The NRRA, I just don’t think it’s a viable option; I don’t think the rates are going to be stabilized enough to make it worthwhile for towns to participate, but time will tell.”

Winsted’s Mayor Todd Arcelaschi takes a different view: If the NRRA can’t manage competitive rates, it will allow private companies to increase their rates while still coming in at a lower cost. “USA is big, but they can do it cheaper than the towns can…If the private market is so far under the public option, then the public option is actually inflating the private market prices.”

“A Hollow Entity”

Despite being the founding member of the NRRA, Torrington has backed out, continuing to work with USA Waste. In comments to The Goshen News, Torrington Mayor Spino cited transparency issues with the NRRA, including conversations she heard second-hand, a failure to post meeting minutes, and an overall “lack of communication.”

“The NRRA is a hollow entity — currently, it has no funds, no employees, no equipment, no mailing address, and no office,” USA Waste wrote in a memorandum opposing conveyance of the transfer station.

In the short period of NRRA’s existence, it has had three Freedom of Information complaints filed regarding a lack of meeting minutes, a lack of votes on adding new member communities, and refusal or inability to provide purported video of meetings. The complaints were filed by attorneys representing USA Waste, who have been watching the organization closely. However, the complaints are not without merit.

The NRRA does have positive aspects: support from the NHCOG, support from the HRRA, and support from the state General Assembly - for now. Heaton-Jones sees a future possibility of merging the HRRA with their smaller neighboring authority. “I would not rule out the possibility of HRRA expanding its municipal membership in the future.”

“What we need in Connecticut is greater competition and better control of escalating waste management costs,” Heaton-Jones said. “Our shared goal should be a system that is environmentally responsible, operationally sustainable, and financially fair for the people who ultimately pay the bills: Connecticut’s residents and businesses.”