SENECA MEADOWS LANDFILL’S ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY

October 12, 2023

SENECA MEADOWS LANDFILL’S ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY

On September 21, over 150 people gathered in Seneca Falls, who overwhelmingly expressed opposition to the proposed expansion and extension of the life of Seneca Meadows landfill.  The climate crisis is now dramatically demonstrating how humans are overheating the Earth with record high temperatures around the globe this past summer. Our state government passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) in 2019 which has set New York on a path to address climate change and eventually reach net zero emissions. New York State voters also overwhelmingly passed a referendum in 2021 which enshrined in the state constitution the right to clean air, clean water, and a healthful environment.

The Texas-based corporation that owns and operates Seneca Meadows sanitary landfill (also known as SMI) in Seneca Falls has applied to extend its operation until 2040. SMI is the largest landfill in New York State, and accepts municipal garbage and construction waste from across the state, four other states, and Canada. The Seneca Falls Town Board had previously voted to close it by 2025, but richly funded PACs supported pro-landfill candidates, who were elected, reversed the previous board’s decision and opted to support a plan to keep the landfill open another 15 years. This plan is now being reviewed by the state, and SMI recently offered the Town over $10 million yearly to keep the landfill operating, up to over $170 million in total. On September 3, the Town Board voted 3-2 to send a memorandum of understanding to SMI that it intends to proceed with the expansion/extension project.

The environmental effects of the landfill include bad odors, wind-borne particulate matter, PFAS-laden leachate, methane release, unsightliness, a large amount of truck traffic with its attendant degradation of roads and exhaust pollution, recurrent fires in pollution control structures, and more. Note that the portion of the landfill that is slated to be added to is itself a pre-existing toxic waste site and that adding untold tons of garbage on top of it holds a risk of squeezing toxic leachate into the surrounding lands and waters. Also, significantly elevated lung cancer rates in the census tracts surrounding the landfill have been discovered and the Town Board itself has voted to ask the State Department of Health to further investigate these findings.

The continuation of Seneca Meadows Landfill appears to be at odds with the will of the people of New York and their state government and carries significant risks to the health of New Yorkers.

Alternatives to keeping Seneca Meadows open include ways to divert waste streams and prevent the production of toxic chemicals and gases. Statewide municipal composting programs would divert organic materials (such as food waste) from landfills. In landfills, such organic waste being compacted and buried produces methane, which wafts into the atmosphere. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and landfill systems to collect it still allow significant amounts of it to escape. Composting organic material mixes it with oxygen, and the breakdown process produces carbon dioxide instead of methane, thus lowering its climate-altering potential.

Significant improvements are needed in our recycling programs, from top to bottom. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach that holds producers responsible for product management during the product’s lifecycle. EPR supports recycling and materials management goals that contribute to a circular economy and can also encourage product design changes that minimize environmental impacts. Product stewardship is an environmental management strategy that means whoever designs, produces, sells, or uses a product takes responsibility for minimizing the product’s environmental impact throughout all stages of the product’s life cycle, including end of product life management.  The greatest responsibility lies with whoever has the most ability to affect the full life cycle environmental impacts of the product. This is most often the producer of the product, though all within the product chain of commerce have roles.

“Connections”, a news and discussion public affairs program on WXXI radio, aired an episode earlier this year on Seneca Meadows. It is an excellent discussion of the issues and is well worth the time to listen to.

From NY Times -- Sept 27, 2023...