Last Thursday, a shoe that’s been waiting to drop for decades finally did. And it landed right on the Town of Wawarsing.

Since the 1980s, county officials have wrestled with a question that probably doesn’t have an answer: Where can we put a landfill that will actually make it through the permitting process? Following a backlash in Saugerties when they tried to put a dump at Winston Farm – the first time many of us heard the term “Nimby” – community resistance to a landfill is a given. So, if one is really serious about taking a portion of a town as a place to put our communal trash, one would presumably follow whatever path resists the least. While the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency’s feasibility study, a closely guarded secret until its release on June 27, also identifies sites in Plattekill and Esopus as good candidates, UCRRA Executive Director Marc Rider put the kibosh on them.

“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 New York City watershed.”

We know Rider to be a serious and thoughtful person, and he’s probably right that Wawarsing is the only place UCCRA has a chance of succeeding. But local officials beg to differ. One of Wawarsing’s representatives in the county legislature, Minority Leader Craig Lopez, is thoroughly against it. “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 a letter he and his Republican legislature colleagues sent this week to UCCRA board chair Regis Obijiski. “It is imperative that we prioritize the preservation of our natural resources and the well-being of our residents over expedient waste management solutions.”

Ulster, like several other counties, has avoided dealing with its trash problem by paying to have it dumped a few hundred miles away at the Seneca Meadows landfill. Everybody, officials and citizens alike, didn’t have a problem with this, but the county might have a huge problem on its hands if the state doesn’t renew the dump’s permit. (A particularly justified form of Nimby-ism, adopted by many living near Seneca Meadows who have had it with being neighbors to a giant disgusting landfill, may have an impact on the state’s decision. It also may not.)

By proposing to place a landfill as far away from the more-affluent and more politically connected communities in the northern parts Ulster, the county’s power elite, whether it meant to or not, has sent a message to those of us living in the south: You matter less than people in Kingston, Rosendale, Woodstock, Hurley and New Paltz, as well as Plattekill and Esopus, and we’re putting the landfill here a. because we can and b. we want it as far away from the rich people as possible. There’s more than a hint of hypocrisy on the part of those who would both champion doing more to prevent climate change and accept the emissions impact of ceaseless trash trucks bringing our crap to its final resting place.

There are many uncertainties ahead. The whole issue could go away if Seneca Meadows gets the extension it wants, but let’s be real – that would only kick the can down the road a few more years. 2040 is closer than it may seem, especially in the world of public works projects.

The landfill’s road from concept to completion will no doubt be a very long and winding one filled with many hazards and frustrations. But it’s one the county may be, at long last, determined to follow to its end. It’s possible, maybe even probable, that no matter what kind of resistance we put up down here, we’re going to have a landfill.

If that’s the case, we think we should make them pay, and pay abundantly, Wawarsing and surrounding communities. We hope our local officials are taking time to start brainstorming a list of demands. Because if we must take the trash, we’re going to take as much money as we can with it.