November 25, 2015
Wednesday, December 2 Hearing in Elmira; UPDATED Written Comment Deadline Extended to Tuesday, December 8, 2015. Take action by clicking here!
 Freshly dumped Marcellus cuttings at Chemung County Landfill. Photo: March 14, 2014/Matt Richmond |
Casella Waste Systems, which operates the Chemung County Landfill, is seeking to expand operations at the landfill to take more shale gas drilling waste from Pennsylvania, even though the landfill is already a top destination in New York for Pennsylvania drilling waste.
The frack waste operations of the Chemung County Landfill were featured in Environmental Advocate's powerful report License to Dump: Despite Ban, New York Permits Pennsylvania to Dump Radioative Fracking Waste Inside Our Borders.
The frack waste operations of the Chemung County Landfill were featured in Environmental Advocate's powerful report License to Dump: Despite Ban, New York Permits Pennsylvania to Dump Radioative Fracking Waste Inside Our Borders.
Despite widespread concerns, DEC is ignoring New York’s low-level radioactive waste laws and regulations which prohibit placement of low-level radioactive drilling wastes in municipal solid waste landfills such as the Chemung Landfill.
DEC claims that drilling wastes are exempt from the low-level radioactive waste laws, not because they are not radioactive, but because they are “naturally-occurring.” We contend that shale gas drilling wastes are processed and concentrated and are subject to the laws.
Tell DEC that shale gas drilling wastes must be subject to New York’s low-level radioactive waste laws.
Written Comments must be filed by December 4, 2015 (UPDATED: Comment Deadline extended to December 8, 2015)
Send to: Kimberly Merchant, Deputy Regional Permit Administrator
NYSDEC Region 8
6274 East Avon-Lima Road
Avon, NY 14414
Or email to ChemungLFExpansion@dec.ny.gov
Public Hearing, Wednesday, December 2
Chemung County Office Building
Legislative Hearing Room
203 Lake Street
Elmira, NY 14902-0588.
The public statement hearing will begin at 6:00 pm.
Also the attached comments letters filed by Atlantic Chapter and Gary Abraham on Chemung and the DEC letter to Chemung regarding leachate testing.
Over the weekend I updated the list of radioactivity articles on my law office website, Materials on Radioactivity in Gas Drilling Waste, http://treichlerlawoffice.com/radiation/index.html so that is good to link now too.
Resources for writing comments:
- Sierra Club Talking Points for Chemung Landfill (pdf)
- License to Dump: Report by Environmental Advocates of New York (pdf)
- Materials on Radioactivity in Gas Drilling Waste
- Testimony of Attorney Gary Abraham before the NYS Senate Democratic Conference Public Forum on the health and environmental risks posed by hydraulic fracturing by-products and the acceptance thereof by New York State publicly owned treatment works and landfills, Albany, NY. May 13, 2014.
- Testimony of Roger Downs, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter before the State Senate Democratic Conference on the health and environmental risks posed by hydraulic fracturing by-products and the acceptance thereof by New York State publicly owned treatment works and landfills, Albany, NY, May 13, 2014.
- Comments from Gary Abraham - RFPLC, March 4, 2015 (pdf)
- Comments from DEC regarding leachate tests - June 23 2014 (pdf)
- Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter Comments on Chemung Landfill (pdf)
Background on Chemung Landfill Permit Applications: