County: landfill could be settled ‘within weeks’

Opposition: Or maybe in 15 months

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — Sullivan County Chairman Jonathan Rouis said county officials may know “within a few weeks,” whether permits for the expansion of the landfill will be granted, and he is optimistic that the county can comply with the relevant noise regulations.

Gary Abraham, the attorney who represents the home-owners who are fighting the expansion, said he does not believe the county can comply with regulations, and even if they can, the decision about the permit might not be final until August of 2009.

The permitting process for the phase two expansion of the Sullivan County Landfill has dragged on for five years. Possibly the final session of the adjudicatory hearing in front of Edward Buhrmaster, the administrative law judge, will occur on June 23, 24 and 25. There, Sullivan County Attorney Sam Yasgur and others representing the county will present a proposal for coming into compliance with noise levels dictated by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

Abraham, however, said this is the third proposal formulated by the county and its consultants to come into compliance, and the consultants working with Abraham say this proposal will not bring the landfill into compliance any more than the previous two.

If Buhrmaster is convinced that the proposal does not meet the DEC requirements, he may allow the county more time to come up with yet another proposal, or he may close the hearings anyway. After that, both sides will present final briefs, which will take two months, and Burhmaster will then make a recommendation to Pete Grannis, the commissioner of the DEC, as to whether or not the permits should be issued.

Regardless of Grannis’ decision, it will likely be appealed by the losing side, and that process will take another year. In Abraham’s view, that leaves the matter of the permits unresolved through August of 2009.

Further complicating the matter is a local law passed by the Village of Monticello in September 2005, which effectively prevents the expansion of the landfill. According to Abraham, in order to move forward with the expansion, county officials would have to convince the village to change the law. Or, perhaps, county officials could challenge the law in court. Monticello Mayor Gordon Jenkins said the village board has not made any decisions on the matter, and that he is considering the various options.

With 21 months of space left in the landfill, and with two years needed to construct the first cells of the expansion, the county will be forced to export garbage out of the county for at least a year, and perhaps considerably longer.

At a meeting of the Public Works Committee on June 5, county officials discussed the final details of the three requests for proposals or bid requests that will be issued in an attempt to determine the most cost-efficient way to move forward. One option is to have the garbage exported out of the county on a long-term basis; the second is to lease the landfill and transfer stations to a private company that would continue to operate them as a waste collection operation; the third option would be to sell the entire system to a private company that would be free to continue to operate it as a landfill or use it for some other purpose.

Six of the three lawmakers continue to support going forward with the expansion. But with a price tag of $40 million, and with other large capital projects looming, such as the new county jail and the green technology park, opponents of the expansion feel that the cost alone may defeat it.