As NRRA Acquisition of Torrington Transfer Station Looms, Lack of Transparency Raises Concerns

The Northwest Resource Recovery Authority (NRRA) may soon gain ownership of the Torrington Transfer Station, a key element in its plans to offer municipal solid waste and recycling services to municipalities in Northwest Connecticut. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill on May 19 that initiates the process of transfer of the parcel, vital to the NRRA’s present and future.

The Torrington City Council created the NRRA in conjunction with the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG) last May, a move that capped a process set in motion by the state in 2023.  The creation of the authority established a pathway for municipalities in the area to enter into service agreements with a publicly controlled authority for waste management and recycling services.

But even with the potential transfer of the Torrington Transfer Station looming, recent contractual decisions made by the City of Torrington, NRRA’s biggest member, and a lack of public information surrounding the authority have raised questions about its present and future.

Transfer of the 4-acre parcel is still pending review from the State Properties Review Board, which was given 30 days to complete said review, according to the bill signed by Lamont. The transfer station is owned by the state, and state officials have a deadline of July 1 to decide what to do with the facility. At one point the state had an offer of $3.25 million from USA Waste and Recycling, an Enfield-based company with vast operations in Connecticut and Massachusetts, to purchase the station.

Some municipal leaders and state elected officials, including several representatives of towns in NHCOG, fought against the sale of the facility at 118 Vista Dr., culminating in an April legislative hearing held by the State Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee.

State officials decided that the future of the transfer station would be determined by the start of July, as part of a process to find a solution to waste management operations in the state. The NRRA itself is a byproduct of that process, which was set off by the dissolution of the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA), a body that once controlled several transfer stations in Connecticut, including Torrington’s.

MIRA Dissolution Authority (MDA), the body in charge of dissolving MIRA, opted to keep MIRA’s property, including the transfer station, in taxpayers’ hands at least until the end of June. At that point, the state’s Department of Administrative Services Commissioner would cease use of the transfer station.

The NRRA was created to support viable trash and recycling services for the NRRA’s members. There are currently six confirmed members, based on local news reporting as well as town agendas and meeting minutes found on respective municipal websites. Those members are Torrington, Goshen, Sharon, Cornwall, Salisbury, and Norfolk.

Details on membership, however, have been difficult to ascertain publicly. Little public information about the NRRA is available on NHCOG’s website, where information about the authority and its board meetings is held.

Rista Malanca, NHCOG’s director of community and economic development, who has been repeatedly cited in other news articles as a source of information regarding the NRRA, has declined several media inquiries from The Goshen News regarding NRRA membership as well as future operations. Malanca wrote in an email that she did not work for the NRRA and noted that inquiries about the authority should be directed to NRRA Board Chair Dan Jerram.

Jerram also declined several inquiries from The Goshen News on the same subjects. Jerram (R), is the former NHCOG board chair and New Hartford’s 1st Selectman.

Silence on the present and future of the NRRA is a concern levied at the authority by Mayor Molly Spino of Torrington, one of its municipal members.

“There's been a lack of communication with the municipalities, at least with mine,” Spino told The Goshen News in an interview. “There's been conversations that have been had that I have not been a part of. I find out about them secondhand, and to me that's a problem. That's not how you do business. [Meeting] minutes were never posted, or agendas were never noticed, so without having the full picture and being a part of the entire conversation, I can't be confident in their operations.”

Spino and the Torrington City Council recently approved a 10-year extension of its contract with USA Waste and Recycling for municipal solid waste and recycling services. The move would eliminate Torrington — the largest municipality in the region — as a potential NRRA customer in the near future. Torrington can opt out of the USA contract after three years.

As the NRRA continues to establish itself and seeks to start operations, the contract between USA and Torrington could prove impactful toward the authority’s mission, according to one expert.

“The more tonnage the [NRRA] has that goes through the system, the more there's… leverage to negotiate a contract for the operation, disposal of the material, going through Torrington, which the NRRA is intending to go up to bid for,” said Jennifer Heaton-Jones, the executive director of the Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority (HRRA). The HRRA is a regional, governmental, waste management and recycling authority serving 14 municipalities in western Connecticut. Heaton-Jones has been guiding NRRA officials to get the authority up and running.

 “Also, Torrington is a member of the NRRA, there is an agreement there. So I don’t know what the future holds,” Heaton-Jones said.