Toxic waste plan from the DEC questioned
It says landfills are fairly distributed
A tentative new plan that could affect whether tens of thousands more truckloads of hazardous waste continue to flow into the region over several decades is being questioned because it asserts Western New York is already being given a fair shake.
But the burden the area already carries is clear, some critics say, since Niagara County is home to the only commercial hazardous waste landfill not only in the state, but in the entire Northeast.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation this week released a draft framework intended to guide how New York handles the treatment and disposal of toxic waste.
Known as the “Hazardous Waste Facility Siting Plan,” it’s the latest step in a process that began more than two decades ago by an act of the State Legislature, that has gone through numerous revisions and that had been tied up in legal disputes.
“We have the only licensed hazardous waste facility,” Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Lewiston, said when asked for her initial reaction. “All the other facilities cited are used for other purposes with much less capacity.”
Gary A. Abraham, an attorney for Niagara County, agrees.
“The county’s primary concern,” Abraham said, “is that the burden that the existing facility at Model City has posed on them be lifted under the rule that there be an equitable distribution of such facilities around the state.”
But it may not be that easy to change the minds of the state’s environmental regulators.
In the last draft version — which was issued five years ago and then withdrawn for re-evaluation — officials also claimed hazardous waste facilities are fairly distributed throughout the state.
“[T]he law does not require differentiation by type of facility to determine equitable distribution of facilities,” state officials said in a written response to the same issue in 2003.
DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren said Tuesday the agency encourages members of the public to read the draft plan and submit comments, which will be evaluated and considered.
A series of public hearings will also be held across the state, including two public hearings in Western New York, as part of the first round of sessions, Wren said.
CWM officials have asked the state for a permit to build additional landfill capacity on a 50-acre section of their 710-acre Balmer Road site.
Under a state law passed in 2005, the DEC cannot move forward with application review until a final siting plan is in place.
The need to complete the siting plan was also referenced by the last two governors, George E. Pataki and Eliot L. Spitzer, when they each vetoed legislation that would have prohibited a hazardous waste landfill from being located in an area with the potential to discharge into the Great Lakes system.
CWM is the proposed destination of PCB-contaminated material from a cleanup site north of Albany equivalent to the approximate weight of 478 Statues of Liberty, a move which both the Erie and Niagara County Legislature have voted to oppose.
State Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane, had the most harsh criticisms of the draft siting plan.
“It’s absolutely terrible,” said Maziarz, who said he expects to issue more detailed comments on Wednesday. “It ensures that CWM will get the expansion that they’ve been after.”
Maziarz said he believes the agency’s draft opens the door for a new landfill permit because the dates the agency predicts state and national capacity will run out are beyond CWM’s current remaining capacity.
DelMonte, who noted her initial reaction to the draft plan was “mixed,” said she was pleased to see the plan required consideration of the issue of environmental justice.
Abraham, Niagara County’s attorney for the matter, said he believes the DEC has improved over its last draft, though he believes they haven’t adequately engaged the issue of equitable distribution.
The full document is available on the Web at w w w. dec. ny.gov/chemical/ 9054.html.
The company is still reviewing the document, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
