No surprise, say some, that the long-awaited Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency landfill feasibility study released Thursday selects as the “A” choice for a countywide landfill a piece of land very close to actually being in Sullivan County.

Of course, that means it’s in Wawarsing.

The 247-acre target area for Candidate Site “A” is in Dairyland on Milk Road out past Greenfield Park, close to Woodridge and Woodbourne.

Candidate Site “B” is also in Wawarsing, on Brown Road. That one has 596 acres and is also described in the report as “Located in close proximity to Sullivan County.” The downside for this selection is that despite access by Routes 52 and 55, travel on smaller roads will be necessary for direct access.

The other issue, states the report: “This site is a potential Environmental Justice Area,” which means that 360 permit requirements will have to be met.

The “A” site on Milk Road can be put together from eight parcels. The Brown Road site is made up of four parcels, totaling 191 acres which are currently for sale.

The report has been in the works for several years and is the product of a search that has been going on for decades. The intensity of the search has gone up and down, but the basics remain the same. UCRRA handles 140,000 tons of municipal solid waste every year and transports that material to Seneca Meadows in the Finger Lakes region. Seneca Meadows’ landfill permit and capacity is set to end in December 2025. A permit extension is possible, depending on the political environment, but even that would only last to 2040. Either way, the county's contract with Seneca Meadows is up at the end of 2024.

UCRRA makes the point in this report that just transporting that 140,000 tons of garbage to Seneca Meadows every year generates more than 4,000 tons of carbon emissions from the trucks. The Cornerstone report also makes it clear that permitting such a landfill would be a long and contentious process. It “typically takes approximately 10 years.”

There are 26 landfills in active use in New York State. From the 2020 data used in the feasibility study, those landfills accept some 8.9 million tons a year of garbage. Their total annual permit capacity is 10.9 million tons. Their total “lifetime permit capacity” was 202.2 million tons back in 2020. That left potentially 22 years of capacity.

There are ongoing campaigns to reduce the flow of garbage and increase recycling, however, it is also the case that American efforts at recycling have been described as unsuccessful by and large. Even in a relatively “green” community like Ulster County, only a fraction of recyclable materials gets taken out of the waste stream.

Current issues in New York include the political climate in Seneca Falls, where a faction aligned with town Democrats wants to shut down Seneca Meadows. The landfill is operated and owned by a company from Texas.

UCRRA employed the firm Hydroquest a few years ago to study the situation and review potential sites in Ulster County. This study, by the firm Cornerstone, reviewed Hydroquest’s work and looked at already existing, though shut down, Ulster County landfill sites for their re-use potential. Cornerstone was looking for potential property groupings of parcels that could provide the necessary 100 acres or more that are needed for a serious, large landfill.

In his presentation to the UCRRA Board of Directors last week, agency Executive Director Marc Rider ruled out all sites except those in Wawarsing. As he explained in an agency press release:

“While the Cornerstone Study identified two sites in the Town of Plattekill as ‘technically feasible,’ my review of the pros and cons of these two sites suggests that they are not likely to be successful in the permitting and entitlement process due to a variety of factors,” Rider stated.

As to the Town of Esopus site, the industrial brownfield that once housed the Dyno-Nobel explosives factory, the report noted that it requires “substantial environmental remediation” and was put on hold, “pending progress on cleanup work.”

“It’s reasonable to ask why the only two sites in the entire county that I am recommending are both in the Town of Wawarsing,” Rider said in a press release. “The answer is simple: these are the only two locations with enough land, limited neighbors, and environmental conditions conducive to a landfill that are not in either the Catskill Park or the NYC watershed.”

Rider went on to explain that the process of further study will look closely at the potential impacts – environmental, economic and social – to the “host” community and will seek to offset any negative impacts that a landfill might have.

Contacted while on holiday with his family, Wawarsing Town Supervisor Terry Houck said he had been in communication with members of the town board, and they had a number of “reservations” about the plan. “The view is not favorable towards this idea,” Houck said.

Ulster County Legislature Minority Leader Craig Lopez (R-Wawarsing) and seven of his GOP fellow lawmakers sent a letter to UCRRA board chair Regis Obijiski Wednesday objecting to the proposed landfill placement.

“Both the Milk Road and Brown Road sites are adjacent to areas of natural beauty and ecological significance,” the letter states. “Placing a landfill here would jeopardize local ecosystems, including water sources and wildlife habitats. The hydrology and soil studies proposed by the agency are inadequate to fully assess the long-term consequences on these sensitive environments.”

“Any potential landfill in the Town of Wawarsing will disrupt daily life, impact our local

waterways and ecosystems and hamper our vital tourism industry,” Lopez stated in a release announcing the letter. “It is imperative that we prioritize the preservation of our natural resources and the well-being of our residents over expedient waste management solutions.”

It will be discussed, of course, and more details will emerge about how and when – and if – such a landfill will be proposed. Among the reservations would be concerns about the traffic on narrow roads, such as those around Brown Road, and the effect of heavy garbage trucks on town thoroughfares.

The study and Rider's presentation to the agency board is available online at ucrra.org/cornerstone-landfill-site-selection-study.

With additional reporting by Steve Ellman.