Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings is hopeful for a win-win situation while local officials spared over the implications and environmental impact of expanding the Rapp Road Landfill at a public hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 3.
Elected officials, environmental advocates and the public met at the Polish Community Center at the Washington Avenue extension to discuss the landfill that could expand eastward further into the Pine Bush Preserve in Guilderland.
The landfill has already expanded several times, the last one in February of 1999.
The attendees raised questions about alternative sites, health risks, the environmental implications to shipping waste to other sites, uses for the natural gas produced by the landfill and marketing the Pine Bush as a source of revenue.
Jennings said the landfill expansion will ultimately benefit the city and the Capital District, while others contest that the odor and health implications outweigh the benefits.
`We have done everything within reason, and then some, to try to turn this into a win-win situation,` Jennings said.
He said it is `obviously a complicated and controversial situation,` but believes an acceptable resolution is possible.
For an update to the story see the Wednesday, Dec. 10 edition of the Guilderland Spotlight.“