North Country Alliance for Balanced Change

09/03/2026

Gov. Kelly Ayotte said if she’s reelected to a second term, her next proposed state budget will include a moratorium on the development of new data centers in New Hampshire.

09/01/2026

Finger Lakes landfills at center of new report warning about leachate entering waterways

Some of New York’s largest flows of landfill wastewater originate in the Finger Lakes, where a new statewide analysis identifies Seneca Meadows, High Acres and the Ontario County landfill among the leading sources of leachate sent to municipal sewage treatment plants. The Aug. 6 report from New Yo...

08/30/2026

New class action suit filed over PFOA contamination in Bennington and Shaftsbury

Vermont Public | By Howard Weiss-Tisman

The new suit was filed on behalf of residents in Bennington and Shaftsbury whose private water wells have been contaminated with PFOA, which is linked to a higher risk of certain cancers and other health issues.

08/28/2026

WE WON A MAJOR BATTLE. BUT THE FIGHT TO SAVE FOREST LAKE IS NOT OVER.

There is a temptation to think the threat to Forest Lake is behind us. After years of hard work, our community has achieved some enormous victories — including the withdrawal of a key landfill permit application and strong action by Governor Ayotte.

Those victories did not happen because of any one organization or individual. They are the result of an extraordinary collective effort — residents who refused to give up, local organizations and community groups, elected officials and legislators, environmental advocates, legal and technical experts, and countless people who spoke up, made calls, wrote letters, attended hearings, contributed financially and helped shine a light on what was at stake.

NCABC is proud to have been one part of that effort and to have helped lead the fight over the years.

But we cannot confuse a major victory with the end of the fight.

The proposed landfill has always been about more than one permit. It is about protecting Forest Lake, our drinking water, the Ammonoosuc watershed, Forest Lake State Park, and the character of our North Country communities for generations to come.

Casella has not simply disappeared. The legal and regulatory issues surrounding landfill development are still being resolved, and the lessons from this fight will shape what happens next.

That is why NCABC is staying in the fight.

We are going to continue working through the courts, the Legislature, the regulatory process and with our many partners to make sure that an unnecessary landfill does not threaten Forest Lake — or another New Hampshire community.

We didn’t come this far to let our guard down now.

A PROMISE MADE AND KEPT

Eight years is a long time to fight
August 25, 2026 - Brennan Ward

In 2018, Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems proposed building a 180-acre commercial landfill directly adjacent to Forest Lake State Park in Dalton, one of the crown jewels of the North Country — a place where generations of families have swum, boated and built their summers. The lake feeds underground springs and private drinking water wells. Its outflow drains through Burns Pond, the Johns River in Whitefield and the Ammonoosuc River through the heart of Littleton. The idea that this watershed could become the receptacle for out-of-state trash was, as Governor Ayotte would later say, defying common sense.

Context matters here. Casella’s existing landfill in nearby Bethlehem is reaching capacity and will stop accepting trash as soon as next year. And because the U.S.

Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause prohibits states from banning out-of-state waste, a significant portion of what fills New Hampshire’s landfills comes from other states. That legal reality is part of why New Hampshire passed a $3.50 per-ton surcharge on all solid waste in 2025, a step forward, but not the whole answer. HB 707 is the next, larger step.

But common sense alone does not win legislative battles. That takes years of sustained, organized, passionate advocacy — and the North Country delivered all of it.

The North Country Alliance for Balanced Change led the charge from the beginning. Wayne Morrison and Tom Tower and an army of community volunteers attended every hearing, wrote every letter, made every phone call, and refused to let the issue fade from the public agenda even when a well-resourced corporate opponent and a slow-moving legislative process seemed poised to outlast them. As Tom Tower put it at the signing ceremony: No hurricane could wreck this day.

They were right. On July 30, 2026, Governor Ayotte signed House Bill 707 into law at Forest Lake State Park, the very place this fight had always been about, surrounded by lawmakers and more than 100 community members who had earned every moment of that celebration.

HB 707 establishes a seven-member Solid Waste Site Evaluation Committee that will review proposed landfills using broader criteria than ever before, including impacts on human health, the environment, the local economy and scenery. It promotes expanding existing landfills rather than siting new ones. And it ensures that local communities have a formal voice in the process, baked directly into state law.

State Senator David Rochefort, R-Littleton, called HB 707 the most consequential legislation passed in New Hampshire in the past four years. I believe he is right.

None of this crosses the finish line without Senator Howard Pearl, whose bipartisan leadership and steady hand built the coalition that carried this bill through two legislative sessions. None of it happens without Governor Ayotte, who made this fight her own from day one and delivered on her word that the North Country would not become a dumping ground for out-of-state trash. And none of it happens without the House members who understood that this was bigger than Dalton; it was about what kind of state we want to be.

In June, Casella withdrew its permit application for the Dalton landfill entirely. A court rejected their lawsuit against the state. Forest Lake is safe.

There is still work ahead. New Hampshire needs a comprehensive long-term solid waste strategy, one that reduces dependence on out-of-state imports and invests in modern solutions. HB 707 is a major step, not a final destination. New Hampshire still needs a comprehensive solid waste strategy that reduces dependence on out-of-state waste imports and invests in modern, community-compatible solutions.

But today, the people of the North Country proved something that every community fighting an uphill battle needs to hear: organized, persistent, principled advocacy works. Eight years is a long time to fight. It is also exactly long enough to win.

Eight years is a long time to fight

08/27/2026

NEW HAMPSHIRE – Just Zero welcomes the signing of New Hampshire House Bill 707, which improves the state’s process for siting and approving landfills – ensuring communities have a stronger voice in decisions that affect their health, environment, and quality of life.

08/24/2026

The U.S. Has A Landfill Problem

Landfills across the country are leaking toxic leachate into waterways, and when owners go bankrupt or vanish, neighbors and taxpayers are left holding the bill.

By: ERIN BROCKOVICH AND SUZANNE BOOTHBY

https://www.thebrockovichreport.com/p/the-us-has-a-landfill-problem.

Landfills across the country are leaking toxic leachate into waterways, and when owners go bankrupt or vanish, neighbors and taxpayers are left holding the bill.

08/22/2026

Council Approves $1 Million For Whitefield Rail Hub, $400K For Littleton Armory

New Hampshire Governor and Council this week approved $1 million for a railway transport hub by the airport in Whitefield as well as an additional $400,000 for the new $20 million New Hampshire Army National Guard field maintenance shop nearing completion in Littleton.

Other North Country approvals were $500,000 awards each to the Affordable Housing, Education and Development Inc. (AHEAD) housing project in Lisbon and to the Boys and Girls Club in Lisbon, as well as money for snow-making improvements at Cannon Mountain Ski Area, $4.5 million for a dam in Pittsburg, and a $700,000 loan for upgrades to the Bethlehem Village District water system.

Rail In Whitefield

The Burlington, Vt.-based Vermont Rail System (VRS) has been advancing plans to revive and rehabilitate the rail line in the Whitefield area, where it leases railway from the state of New Hampshire, and in the Northeast Kingdom, where it owns segments of rail.

The hub in Whitefield and nearby rail line are part of the former Maine Central Railroad’s Mountain Division.

The council’s approval on Wednesday authorizes the New Hampshire Bureau of Rail and Transit to accept and expend a $1 million federal Forest Economy Program grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission to fund the revitalization of the state-owned rail facility in Whitefield and transform it into a small-scale trans-load hub for the interstate and within-state transport of commercial forest products.

“It’s looking to take the Whitefield rail yard and revitalize it for a trans-load facility,” said Shelley Winters, deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. “This will connect over to Lunenburg, Vermont so we’ll have connection within the state and to the state of Vermont for trans-loading forest products, mostly outbound products from New Hampshire that are going by truck currently.”

District 1 Executive Councilor Joe Kenney cited the poor condition of the adjacent rail line and rights-of-way.

“I want to really get to the crux of the issue because I don’t want to build a rail facility to nowhere,” he said. “Is there a master plan and is Vermont Rail prepared to put money or skin into this game? I see we’re putting federal dollars into this, but if you watch the videos and look at pictures of this particular site it’s very dilapidated and the rail rights-of-way are pretty bad off. Are we just throwing a little money at a bigger problem?”

The grant is an 80/20 grant, and the 20-percent match will involve a $15,000 private donation and the remainder coming from VRS, which can provide in-kind engineering, maintenance, some installation of components, or management, said Winters.

“They are also going to be putting in some of their own funds to do some of the brush removal and washout repairs in between downtown Whitefield and Lunenburg,” she said. “The line coming from the airport is in good condition. It’s that connection over to Vermont that needs to be improved. There will be needs beyond the restricted revenue that we have in the railroad fund, so Vermont Rail is stepping up. They believe there’s a return on investment based on outreach to potential shippers and receivers.”

Kenney asked if there is a cost estimate for rehabilitating the rail line.

While the $1 million grant is for the trans-load facility, VRS has been working with an engineer to determine the cost to get from downtown Whitefield to Lunenburg, said Winters.

That part of the work is ineligible for the Whitefield hub grant, though other grants can be explored to address the line washouts and issues elsewhere, she said.

“They’ve done some exploratory work and are pretty confident they’ll have the resources to be able to do it if the state can’t step up,” she said.

Kenney asked if the state has consulted with members of recreational trail groups — some of whom had been preparing for a conversion of unused local rail lines into new recreational trail — to see if they’ve been informed that railways might be reactivated.

Winters has spoken with trail advocates and said it will be determined whether the rail line, once restored, can safely accommodate a recreational trail within its corridor — or at least in certain segments — and where the recreational trail might need to go off-corridor until it can safely get back on the corridor.

Maintenance Shop At Littleton Armory

For more than a year, the New Hampshire Army National Guard has been building out a 27,000-square-foot field maintenance shop at its armory in Littleton, a project with a total cost of just north of $20 million.

On Wednesday, the council authorized the state Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services to accept and expend an additional $373,483.90 from the National Guard Bureau to cover additional construction costs.

“This is for the epoxy flooring and solar array, which is going to provide 100 percent of our utility costs for electricity,” said Nicole Bixler, deputy adjutant general for the New Hampshire Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services.

An open house is scheduled for Sept. 22, she said.

Cannon Mountain

The council also approved $45,955 from the Cannon Mountain Capital Improvement Fund for a new snow-making line for the Upper Ravine Trail as well as $67,650 from the New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR) for summer trail maintenance services.

A complete overhaul of ski-making equipment was done at the top of Cannon Mountain a decade ago, said Kenney, who asked if the new upgrade was part of the original project 10 years ago, if there was any warranty, and why the DNCR has returned with another request.

The pipes are in critical condition and need replacement, said Adam Crepeau, DNCR commissioner.

Shawn Hamilton, director of DNCR’s Division of Parks and Recreation, said he doesn’t know if the project was part of the plan 10 years ago, but can check.

Cannon Mountain’s snow-making team has identified critical needs, he said.

“There’s been significant modernization over the past 10 years, and we continue to improve our snow-making operation,” said Hamilton.

Following the departure of Jace Wirth, the former general manager of Cannon Mountain Ski Area and Franconia Notch State Park, who resigned in July, the state is interviewing candidates and hopes to have a new general manager in place before the ski season, Hamilton said.

Lisbon, Bethlehem

The council authorized the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority to award a federally funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) of $500,000 to the town of Lisbon for the Boys and Girls Club of Central and Northern New Hampshire to support ventilation and HVAC improvements at the Lisbon club facility.

Also authorized was a federally funded CDBG grant of $500,000 to the town of Lisbon for AHEAD’s rehabilitation of the Lisbon Inn, which supports 17 affordable housing apartment units.

“I’m glad to see these projects going forward,” said District 2 Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill. “AHEAD does great work in both Councilor Kenney’s and my district … The rehabilitation of the Lisbon Inn is a really great project because it also serves that component of affordable housing and also community development and revitalization.”

Approved for the Bethlehem Village District was a $668,000 federal loan to finance the inventory and replacement of lead service lines within the district’s water distribution system and to improve water quality.

Murphy Dam In Pittsburg

Approved for Murphy Dam — a major state-owned dam in Pittsburg at a popular recreation area — was $4.5 million for construction contract services related to replacement of the dam’s dow discharge valves, which are used in larger and older dams.

“Murphy Dam in Pittsburg is a high-hazard, state-owned structure built between 1937 and 1940 that regulates all outflow from Lake Francis to the Connecticut River,” Robert Scott, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, wrote in the request to the council. “The dam relies on two original 84-inch Dow valves, now more than 80 years old, which have experienced significant deterioration, including corrosion, cavitation-related steel loss, operational vibration, and degradation of key mechanical components.”

Engineering consultants have recommended full replacement because of declining reliability and the essential role that the valves play in maintaining reservoir control and providing temperature-sensitive base flow to the Connecticut River, said Scott.

“Given the dam’s high-hazard classification, the documented deterioration of the existing valves, and their critical function in ensuring safe and reliable discharge, approval is necessary to proceed with replacement and to protect public safety,” he said.

Across New Hampshire, the state has been pulling out some of its smaller dams, as part of an effort to reduce liability and decrease maintenance and repair costs, while it is maintaining others.

“Most of my problems are dam problems from Alton north,” said Kenney, who added that it amounts to about $400 million worth of liability regarding the maintenance and repair of high-hazard dams. “I hope the Legislature is listening. We are going to have a lot of unhappy citizens if we start pulling out a lot of dams.”

New Hampshire Governor and Council this week approved $1 million for a railway transport hub by the airport in Whitefield as well as an additional $400,000 for the new $20

08/20/2026

08/20/2026

New Hampshire receives nearly $7.3m in settlement with “forever chemical” manufacturer 3M

New Hampshire has received a nearly $7.3 million disbursement from a national settlement with 3M Company, the fourth settlement the state has reached with manufacturers of forever chemicals to remediate contamination of public water sources.

Settlement payments have returned more than $43 million to the state’s Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund, established in November 2025 to allocate funds to water systems affected by contamination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also referred to as PFAS or “forever chemicals.”

“We have more work to do to hold the manufacturers of harmful PFAS compounds and [aqueous film-forming foam] accountable for the contamination of New Hampshire’s waters, soils and other natural resources,” Attorney General John Formella said in a statement. “We will not stop fighting until these polluters pay their fair share to clean up the mess they created and protect the health of our citizens.”

The state has received disbursements from settlements with 3M, DuPont, Tyco and BASF, and it expects additional payments will continue through 2033, according to the office of the attorney general.

In administering the settlement fund, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services determines eligibility based on a water system’s PFAS test results and documentation demonstrating that, by undertaking mitigation efforts, a water system has or will incur costs.

More than four dozen public water systems have been approved to receive funding from the settlement fund, according to most up-to-date information available through February 2026, including Northbrook MHP in Belmont, Pembroke Water Works, Lochmere Village District in Tilton and the Epsom Village Water District.

In Epsom, where elevated levels of PFAS were detected during a routine test of one of the water district’s two wells in January 2024, remediation efforts were estimated to cost $6.15 million. Leadership vacancies have, however, thwarted the town’s ability to embark on its remediation project.

New Hampshire receives $7.3 million from a 3M settlement to combat PFAS contamination in public water sources.