Too much landfill already

By DAVID HULSE

	TRR photo by David Hulse Landfill opponents say a planned expansion of the Sullivan County Landfill will double the height of the pictured existing trash mound near the former Apollo Mall. (Click for larger image)

MONTICELLO, NY — Sheena Levin came to the county legislature last week with a luncheon invitation. “I’m here to invite you all to lunch. But I won’t have to make a lot, because you’ll lose your appetite,” she said.

Levin was among a score of residents from the Beaver Lake community off Rose Valley Road who showed up on August 21 to voice their complaints about the pervasive stink of the existing county landfill in Monticello and their concerns about its planned expansion.

They were the latest contingent of residents voicing complaints in what has become a monthly ritual before the county lawmakers.

Mimi Berkowitz charged that new real estate taxes in the growing county will offset any losses from an end of garbage importation. “I come here to de-toxify. I don’t want to be near a dump,” she complained.

“You’re using up your own resource,” another woman said. “We need a dump, but we don’t need other people’s garbage.”

The message has been amplified in village and town meetings by members of a group that call themselves Special Protection of the Environment for the County of Sullivan (SPECS). The SPECS group last year was instrumental in killing a proposal by Calpine, an energy company, to build a gas-fueled power plant near the landfill. This year, according to spokesperson Cynthia Nixon, the group has gathered more than 5,000 petition signatures opposing a planned 36-acre expansion of the landfill.

Their message is pretty clear, said Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini. “There are serious impacts on the community and the Town of Thompson doesn’t want to host a county landfill.”

Earlier this month, more than 100 people showed up at the Thompson Town Hall for a SPECS sponsored informational meeting.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Region III Director Marc Moran and Regional Engineer Richard Baldwin came to listen.

SPECS screened a Powerpoint presentation showing a graphic photo representation of the volume the new expansion would add to the existing landfill, doubling the height of the 125-foot trash heap to some 250 feet. Nixon said the larger mound would no longer have the screen of trees, “just a mountain of garbage.”

Aside from the “unbearable smell,” the threat of the rupture of the landfill’s liner is “too great a risk to be permitted,” she said.

The existing landfill is permitted by DEC and operated with daily agency oversight, but the expansion would require new state approvals, Moran explained. While the agency is expecting one in the next few months, he said that as of now no application has been made for the expansion.

“We don’t site, favor or oppose. We regulate and measure potential environmental impacts,” Moran said.

Many residents spoke, complaining of the smell, health issues and the selling of the resource.

Parent David Bunce was moved to tears describing how his two children can’t wait outside for their school bus in the morning without suffering from nausea from the smell. “Please do something,” he pleaded.

Legislators Robert Kunis (R-8) and Jim Carnell (R-7) attended the session. Kunis said later that there are two issues—the odor and importation.

“We’ve done a lot with maintenance to correct the odor. The big issue is importation. Since the beginning of my term I’ve been steadfastly opposed to importation. The landfill is a jewel and we have to extend its life for county residents. I’m not opposed to the expansion if it’s well maintained and used for Sullivan County trash,” he said.

Carnell emphasized that the economic need was no longer there.

“The county started importing to eliminate a deficit and we have been. A lot of good things have been happening since then. These are the best economic times in 10 or 20 years. We’ve added $100 million to the tax base. We could offset the landfill just by that.”

Will other parts of the county be willing to give up the easy money of importation? “Others places aren’t as affected day-to-day as ours,” Carnell admitted. “Absolutely, it’s hard to back away, but we need to. There will always be revenues and expenses. They’re never not going to come into play, but we have a fund balance now. Now’s the time to stop it. We’re not in deficit anymore,” he said.

“No matter whose district it’s in, it’s an asset and a resource,” he said.

Legislative Majority Leader and chair of the Public Works Committee Rodney Gaebel said the county is not turning a deaf ear to residents concerns. “We’re trying to be proactive. We’re working with the DEC at every turn. We’re dealing with the odor. We have monitoring wells in place. It’s a state-of-the-art landfill, but the issue of odor isn’t going to go away,” he said.

Cellini recalled that county Board of Supervisors took over the landfill when the former village landfill on the site was facing legal action from DEC. “It’s not the place for a monstrous landfill,” he said.

Still, he admitted that were another site found, residents would likely react the same way.

“I don’t think anybody would be happy.”