Waiting game begins as trash conference ends

By DAVID HULSE

MONTICELLO, NY — With the first round of legal maneuvers completed last week, the Sullivan County Legislature might have been talking landfill negotiation or settlement strategies in at special April 20 meeting, but they weren’t.

Public Work Committee Chair Kathy LaBuda said the afternoon meeting was essentially a briefing on what had happened last week. No new negotiations with any of the other four parties to the landfill’s cell six expansion plan have been asked to meet and none of them have asked to talk with the county. “If we settle it, I think it’s going to be a last minute thing,” LaBuda said, referring to an April 30 deadline for a progress report set by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Administrative Law Judge Edward Buhrmaster.

The Tuesday meeting came after a two-day “issues conference,” a quasi-judicial proceeding involving the county, the DEC and three “parties” to the landfill expansion issue: an environmental group representing landfill neighbors, the Sullivan County Supervisors Association, and the Town of Thompson joining forces with the Village of Monticello.

Lawyers for the five parties made arguments before and answered questions from Buhrmaster on April 15 and 16.

Gary Abraham, representing landfill neighbors as Special Protection for the Environment of the County of Sullivan (SPECS), was arguing against any expansion. He said people within a one-mile radius of the landfill “were suffering from toxic gases, resulting from inadequate controls” which had been known to the state and county for years and never addressed. “Its history of non-compliance makes us unable to trust that the county will operate in compliance in future,” he said.

Attorney David Engel, for the supervisors, said that while the association was “deeply concerned” about historic compliance and odor problems, the county’s towns and villages rely on the landfill as their sole means for solid waste disposal. He argued that county government has expedited the use of “a precious resource,” in the landfill’s capacity in the sale of space for out-of-county waste disposal at a discounted rate compared to that charged county residents. Engel called on the DEC to approve the new cell to allow the towns to make alternative waste plans, halve the intake permitted and stop the importation.

J. Benjamin Gailey, representing Thompson and Monticello, agreed with the association arguments for limitations on tonnage and said, “we also believe that DEC can prohibit or restrict importation.”

One of the first major points Buhrmaster elicited from DEC Deputy Regional Attorney Jonah Triebwasser was, that with county concessions on a list of odor- and litter-related issues, the agency was willing to issue a permit for the cell six expansion.

County Attorney Sam Yasgur said the county legislature would make the final decisions on the state’s points, but said he felt “we’re very close [to resolution].”

Tonnage and its point of origination was another issue.

Yasgur argued and Triebwasser confirmed that the agency could not dictate restrictions on intake after setting a maximum tonnage intake.

Triebwasser said the DEC felt the landfill could safely accept 200,000 tons of waste annually, noting that any figure less than that was a policy decision for the county, not DEC.

Further Triebwasser and Buhrmaster agreed that DEC had no legal authority to restrict the county’s importation of waste.

However, Thompson and Monticello appeared to win an important point when Triebwasser said that the state’s operating permit only satisfies state environmental law and does not provide exemption from compliance local laws passed by the town or village. “Read that as whatever rules Thompson or the village may enforce,” he said.

Buhrmaster said at the outset that he would not provide an oral ruling during the conference and participants later confirmed that negotiations would continue up to an April 30 deadline Buhrmaster set for filing of a resolution.

Supervisors association president, Lumberland Supervisor John LiGreci said he was confident that a resolution could be reached beforehand.

Abraham said that if an acceptable settlement is negotiated, SPECS will withdraw its opposing petition.

Failing a compromise, Buhrmaster scheduled the conference to reconvene in Monticello on May 10.