Finger Lakes Group
Winter 2007 Newsletter
The Chemung County Landfill Expansion
by Robin Stroman
Residents For the Preservation of Lowman and Chemung (RFPLC, Inc.), is a 501 (c)(4) non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the historical and environmental integrity of our communities. RFPLC— which includes several Sierra Club members—is enlisting the help of all area Sierra Club members, urging them to attend an upcoming New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) legislative hearing and speak in opposition during the public comment period regarding a proposal to increase annual permitted tonnage at the aging leaking Chemung County Landfill.
Located amid lush green farmland on historic and scenic County Route 60/Route 17C in the hamlet of Lowman, Town of Chemung, the County-owned landfill is currently permitted to accept 120,000 tons per year (TPY) of Mixed or Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). A request to increase tonnage to 180,000 TPY is pending before DEC's Region 8 Solid Waste and Hazardous Materials permitting division. Due to public interest DEC has made an unusual decision to hold a legislative hearing to receive public comment on what DEC considers a "minor" permit modification for the proposed tonnage increase. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) has been assigned. Although the exact date, time, and location of the hearing have yet to be announced, it is tentatively set for late January, 2008. This hearing is an opportunity to bring numerous environmental concerns to the ALJ's attention. Written comments will also be accepted.
For instance, the Chemung Landfill's location breaks all the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) landfill siting rules: The EPA contends that gravel pits, valleys, aquifers, and rivers are to be avoided when siting a landfill. Not only is the facility located on the site of an old gravel mine in a glacially formed valley over a principal aquifer, but portions of its property lie in the flood plain of the Chemung River~a tributary to the Susquehanna River and part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Adding to these concerns is the landfill's history of accepting waste into unlined cells from noted polluters such as Westinghouse, Toshiba, and Kennedy Valve. Groundwater monitoring wells show contamination from such toxins as arsenic, benzene, lead, toluene, and Trichloroethane, just to name a few. Given its proximity to the Chemung Valley Aquifer and the Chemung River, expansion of this facility presents a clear threat to the region's groundwater.
Despite the siting nightmare, the 35-year old dump is poised for expansion at the hands of Casella Waste of Rutland. Vermont, a vertically-integrated waste hauling and disposal company, currently operating the landfill under the name NEWSNY (New England Waste Services of NY) and a 25-year lease agreement with Chemung County that went into effect in September, 2005. The company has, at best, a questionable environmental track record in several states (type "Casella Violations" into Google's search window) while having been prosecuted and fined by our own Attorney General's office for burying carefully sorted recyclables into their landfills in the early 1990s.
Casella's operation of the landfill may be. on its own, a reason to raise objections to a 50% increase in garbage accepted at the facility. Since they took over nearly two years ago, there have been numerous complaints from nearby residents of unbearably noxious odors emanating off-site, while traffic congestion, noise, and diesel fumes interfere with landfill neighbors' lawful right to the quiet enjoyment of their property. Adverse environmental and safety impacts also affect anyone traveling in the vicinity of the dump.
Along with the possibility that the site itself may be considered an inactive hazardous waste dump are concerns about the types and origin of new waste that Casella haulers will bring to the landfill due to their history of transporting radioactive wastes to other locations they control in New England states. Two of those locations in Massachusetts—one a transfer station, the other a landfill—were respectively sold and closed after each location's Board of Health voiced concerns over health and safety issues.
Landfills in general are directly tied to issues of clean air and water, as well as global warming. Landfill expansion proposals do not promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystem and resources and are at odds with the Sierra Club's mission and its Zero Waste Committee's position regarding waste management which calls for an end to the landfilling of unsorted wastes. It can be argued that the landfill expansion Casella now seeks— equating more trash with more cash—will mean less emphasis placed on recycling, reusing, composting, or reducing the amount of waste generated in the first place, and result in more effort by Casella Waste to keep landfill volumes up. Consider the fact that Casella executives bragged in their June online investor conference call that they'd been successful in lobbying efforts to defeat the Connecticut Bottle Bill: Passage of the CT Bottle Bill would have meant a reduction in the amount of waste to be landfilled and a loss in Casella's revenues from landfill tipping fees.
In his 2006 book "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble," Lester R. Brown says it is "time to revamp the solid waste management system so that it no longer supports a throwaway habit" because "the throwaway economy is on a collision course with the earth's geological limits." Groups like Sierra Club are in a position to be the catalyst to bring about the much-needed changes in this system. Raising objections to this tonnage increase at the DEC hearing would be an important step in revamping a system fraught with obsolete priorities. It is also an appropriate way of using all lawful means to carry out objectives in keeping with the Sierra Club's mission to restore the quality of the natural and human environment.