Expand the city landfill? Try again

By LYNN JACKSON

Pinch your nose and grip your wallet. Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings is out to get your money and anybody's garbage. The mayor has once again trooped out his legions of high-priced engineers and is pleading to the Department of Environmental Conservation that expanding the Rapp Road landfill by 27 acres and 470 feet high is the way to bring financial security to Albany.
The mayor's landfill expansion program is nothing more than a publicly financed Ponzi scheme. The $41 million price tag only extends the new landfill's life until 2015. This is a staggering debt obligation over such a short time. The life span could be significantly reduced if the city does what it has done in the past — accelerate refuse intake.

With each successive landfill expansion, the city extends its new debt through continued bonding, while at the same time never fully retiring the previous bond debt. As the permitted life cycle of the landfill is completed, or cut short by excessive dumping that fills the landfill prematurely, the mayor once again goes before DEC, pleads poverty and then gets another extension. Old debt is covered with ever increasing new debt. Eventually, the mountain of debt will far exceed the mountain of garbage available to pay for it. When that happens, the last victims, the taxpayers of Albany, will be left holding a very expensive bag of garbage.
All this raises the question, does Albany really need increased landfill revenues to balance the budget?

If all the costs of the landfill, including the capital and bonding costs, are subtracted from all of the revenue, would the landfill run at a profit? Save the Pine Bush believes not.
Mayor Jennings would have us believe there are no alternatives to expanding the landfill. In fact, there are better economic and environmental alternatives, but only visible to those who want to see them.

The taxpayers of Albany would be well served to consider the view Common Council Dominick Calsolaro provided the Times Union with in March 2007. He made solid suggestions, including creating a regional landfill authority, studying the economic impact of tourists coming to the Capital Region to visit the Pine Bush against the "profit" the city says it makes in operating the landfill, and to implement the three R's of conservation: reduction, reuse, recycle.
In addition, the state is reviewing a solid waste management plan, called "Beyond Waste: A New Approach for NYS." It emphasizes a method of dealing with solid waste that would ultimately result in very little waste going into landfills or incinerators. Municipal solid waste is a resource not to be wasted. Albany should follow this plan.

The proposed expansion also brings up the issue that it is illegal to build a landfill over an aquifer, such as the Pine Bush aquifer, that could be used for a municipal source of drinking water. The city of Albany sold Lake Rensselaer, near the landfill, to its water department for use as an emergency water system. The city is asking for a variance to build a landfill on top of the aquifer that supplies water to the emergency water system. How can they get away with this?
As anyone living near the landfill knows, it stinks to high heaven. DEC has on record thousands and thousands of complaints about the stench. Though the city has spent millions to remediate the smell, people have been reporting recently that the stench is back.
Save the Pine Bush urges everyone who cares about the Pine Bush, clean water, clean air and a sensible approach to solid waste, to attend the DEC hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the Polish Community Center on Rapp Road and Washington Avenue Extension.

Lynne Jackson is a volunteer with the group Save the Pine Bush.

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This hearing may be your only chance to comment on the proposed landfill expansion in the Pine Bush.

It is extremely important for everyone who cares about the Pine Bush attend this hearing. Stay informed, sign up for the Subscribe to the Save the Pine Bush listserv to receive information about meetings and actions relating to the proposed landfill expansion.

Save the Pine Bush believes it is an outrage for DEC to give citizens less than 30 days notice of the hearing. If you are outraged too, please contact:

Angelo (Andy) Marcuccio
Environmental Analyst 2
Division of Environmental Permits
NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
Region 4
1130 N. Westcott Road
Schenectady, NY 12306-2014
Telephone (518) 357-2446
Fax (518) 357-2460
E-mail: aamarcuc (at) gw.dec.state.ny.us