Complaint filed over landfill expansion

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (WWLP) - Complaints against the South Hadley Conservation Commission have been filed at the Attorney General's office. 

This open meeting law complaint was filed Monday at the state's Attorney General's Office. 

The complaint claims the South Hadley Conservation Commission failed to inform residents of boundaries surrounding a proposed landfill expansion.

Vic Anop is the attorney for an organized group known as SHAME, or South Hadley Residents Against More Expansion. He told 22News the boundaries could affect a Pine Barren Moth population living near the landfill. Anop says residents haven't been allowed to be part of the conservation committee meetings.

Anop said, “We go to these meetings, I've sat there patiently waiting to have input and we are told that they are going to be discussing it, and the public really doesn't have the right to answer any questions.”

“The first thing that I noticed was the smell when I moved in three years ago,” said Lori Eldridge, who lives near the landfill. “Now, that I've gotten more involved I've realized that there is a lot of problems with the landfill.”

Along with the open meeting complaint, a public records request was filed a week ago. Anop says South Hadley has three days left to provide records of meetings that date back to August. 

Landfill operators have been drafting a proposal to expand the dump another 16 acres.