DEC gets Niagara message
Public hearing offers criticism of inequity in toxic waste siting
Published: November 20, 2009, 12:30 am
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LEWISTON — The message to state environmental regulators was clear Thursday night—stop treating Niagara County as New York’s toxic waste dump.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation came to the Lewiston-Porter High School auditorium to hold a public hearing on its draft plan to guide the development of hazardous waste facilities.
What ensued has become a regular occurrence in the Lew-Port community, home to CWM Chemical Services, the only commercial hazardous waste landfill in the state and the Northeast — one by one, members of the public told regulators that they continue to be wrong in concluding that hazardous waste facilities are distributed equally across New York.
At least 225 people packed the auditorium for the session, with many calling on Gov. David A. Paterson to address what they consider decades of undue burden. They said they wanted that burden lifted.
One speaker urged the crowd to “penetrate the purple haze of DEC analysis,” and see that the plan unfairly counts each hazardous waste facility in the state, regardless of size or type, as equal in its review. That process, said R. Nils Olsen Jr., a Youngstown resident and a University at Buffalo law professor who heads the school’s Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, allows the agency to conclude that hazardous waste sites are fairly scattered across New York.
Olsen deemed that result “absurd.”
The latest version of the department’s draft plan, known as the “Hazardous Waste Facility Siting Plan,” concludes that the state needs no additional hazardous waste landfill capacity, a conclusion that differed from the agency’s previous draft. At the same time, it says that such facilities may be permitted if they are “in the public interest” or “otherwise necessary.”
During the first 2 1/2 hours of comments, 27 speakers stepped to the microphone. Six spoke in support of allowing CWM to expand.
CWM, which is located on Balmer Road in the Town of Porter, has asked the state for permission to add 6 million tons of landfill capacity at its site.
Several of the speakers were law students in the UB clinic, which represents Residents for Responsible Government, a Porter citizens organization that opposes the expansion of CWM.
The parade of speakers who criticized the DEC included elected leaders at the town, county, state and federal levels.
A letter from Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, was read near the start of the hearing. In her letter, Slaughter said she was “deeply concerned” that the state does not acknowledge the “disproportionate and unequal burden on Niagara County” and that “this region does not need any more economic handicaps.”
Many of Thursday’s speakers said the state failed to consider the millions of tons of hazardous waste already buried here in closed landfills.
“We have been dumped on for far too long,” said April Fideli, a Lew-Port School Board member and president of Residents for Responsible Government.
Among the several individuals who spoke in support of CWM was Chuck Aube, a Ransomville resident and 33-year employee of the facility.
Aube noted CWM’s position as the largest taxpayer for the Lew-Port School District and said he was proud to be part of the effort to clean up New York State.
Support for CWM — and, at the same time, criticism of the state for saying the facility is not necessary — also came from representatives of Laborers Local 91, Teamsters Local 449 and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 463.
Melody Burow, a Town of Niagara resident, also voiced support, pointing to what she sees as the facility’s economic importance to the region.
“We can’t afford to lose any jobs anywhere,” Burow said.
Critics have said that closing the landfill would open the area up to economic growth, which they don’t believe will happen if the site continues to operate.
Supporters of CWM wore white, green and yellow stickers to the hearing that read: “Clean & Green = Jobs” and “I support a Clean & Green New York.”
Aside from CWM, the towns of Lewiston and Porter are home to the Niagara Falls Storage Site, a federal dump for radioactive waste; the former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, now being investigated by federal regulators for chemical and radiological contamination; and Modern Disposal’s solid waste landfill.
Under state law, the draft siting plan must be completed before the company’s application can be considered. The initial law calling on the DEC to complete the siting plan was passed in 1987.
Thursday night’s public hearing came a day after another session held in Niagara Falls. Wednesday night, seven speakers offered comments, with only one of them supporting CWM.
The DEC has said that it expects to consider comments taken from this round of public hearings held across the state and release a final plan by next summer. Thursday’s hearing was the final one of the second round. The first round was held last year.
abesecker@buffnews.com
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