Sullivan County to study landfill alternatives

Expansion uncertainties and rising costs drive decision

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — County officials have earmarked more than $4 million to help keep the landfill running in 2008, and that cost, coupled with ongoing litigation, has lawmakers ready to consider alternatives.

In a phone interview, legislator Kathy LaBuda, chairwoman of the Sullivan County General Services Committee, said, “We can’t continue to take money from the general fund,” to pay to keep the landfill open. Revenues from the landfill are declining, while expenses are rising.

LaBuda said the county will study alternatives, and consider options such as exporting municipal solid waste and stepped-up efforts in the county’s recycling efforts. LaBuda also repeated a statement made earlier this year by county manager David Fanslau that the county “has no obligation” to operate a garbage collection operation, and does so only as a service to taxpayers. The possibility, therefore, exists that the county might get out of the garbage business altogether.

LaBuda said the exact scope of the study, or who will conduct it, has not yet been determined, but lawmakers would be considering those questions in the next few weeks.

When lawmakers made the decision in 2004 to expand the landfill, they were expecting that they would receive the necessary permits from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) within a year or two. But as 2008 approaches, the issue of noise that would be created at the landfill expansion remains the subject of an administrative hearing with Administrative Law Judge Edward Buhrmaster.

According to lawyer Gary Abraham, who is representing residents of Mountain Lodge Estates who oppose the landfill expansion, the date for the next hearing is not yet scheduled because the county has not yet responded to Buhrmaster’s order that it provide more expert information.

LaBuda said that noise is the final issue blocking the DEC from issuing permits, but Abraham said that even if Buhrmaster rules in the county’s favor, the issue can be appealed to the DEC. And if his clients are not successful in that appeal, the noise issue and several others can be further appealed by moving the matter out of the DEC and into civil court. With only two years worth of space left in the landfill, it seems likely that space will run out before the various appeals are exhausted.

Abraham said that Sullivan County is in a unique position to create revenue with the county’s garbage by recycling because of the county’s network of transfer stations, and because of a county law that essentially says all waste in the county must be managed at county facilities. According to Abraham, throughout the permitting process, Sullivan County Attorney Sam Yasgur has held the position that enforcing the law would not be possible because it would violate certain trade laws. Abraham said, however, that in April of this year, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in a case regarding two other New York counties that said the county law regarding garbage could be enforced.

With the use of such a law, it would be possible for the county to provide a commercial recycler with a guaranteed waste stream, thereby providing the basis, theoretically, for a commercial operation to recycle nearly all of the municipal solid waste generated in the county. At least three recycling companies over the past several years have had discussions with county officials about working out an agreement to set up various advanced recycling operations, but officials rejected the proposals as too risky.

Yasgur did not return a call seeking comment.