Village of Colonie Mayor Frank Leak sponsored a community forum Wednesday, April 22, that allowed area residents to air concerns about a proposed expansion of the Rapp Road landfill.
Residents from the Town of Colonie, the Village of Colonie and neighboring communities, including Guilderland and Ravena, used the forum to warn of the health hazards and smell associated with the landfill, and said an increase in birds around the landfill would pose a danger to aircraft.
Many also blasted what they called shortsighted economic planning regarding the proposed expansion.
Everyone has the right to live a free and healthy life, said Elaine Sacco, a Village of Colonie resident.
Some of the people attending the meeting asked for governmental oversight from health agencies to determine the safety of the landfill’s expansion.
The landfill was first expanded in 1991. Since then it has grown twice, with the last expansion in February 1999.
The planned lateral expansion would cover close to 15 acres, with two of those acres falling in the `existing landfill operations area,` and 13 of those acres in undeveloped, city-owned land to the northeast of the landfill, according to the Oct. 8 Department of Environmental Conservation environmental impact notice.
The expansion also includes plans for the restoration of neighboring wetlands, with the creation of 22.14 acres of new wetlands, as well as improvements in quality and function, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation, to an additional 27.45 acres of existing wetlands.
Rick Georgeson, a spokesman for the DEC, said there are alternatives on the table that do not involve expanding into the wetlands.
The expansion, Georgeson said, could include going into federally protected wetlands, but not into designated Pine Bush Preserve land.
Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings’ executive assistant Bob Van Amburgh said the mayor `inherited` the issue, and a DEC consent order to find a suitable place for area waste was already filed before the mayor took office. Van Amburgh said Jennings is looking for the best alternatives and technology to handle waste management, and the expansion would buy the administration much-needed time to do so.
`[The mayor] has always been very, very, concerned about the need to expand the landfill,` Van Amburgh said. `He doesn’t want to be in the trash business.`
Jennings said at a Dec. 3 hearing that the landfill generally takes in close to $11 million each year, and that revenue will go toward other waste management solutions. The landfill also generates natural gas for electricity.
Grace Nichols, an Albany resident, said the landfill poses a danger, due to air and water pollution. She also said that Clough-Harbor, the engineering firm hired by the City of Albany, misled DEC officials about levels of harmful pesticides used at the landfill.
Frank Lavardera, vice president of Clough-Harbor, said the landfill does not use pesticides at the site, but does have contracts to combat rodents and insects in administrative offices and several other buildings.
Lavardera said Clough-Harbor told the DEC that, to its knowledge, the chemicals were not used as part of the landfill portion of the operation.
Several members of the environmental advocacy group Save the Pine Bush asked that the landfill not expand into federally protected lands.
`We should stop destroying this beautiful land. Enough is enough,` said Sandy Scudder, of Save the Pine Bush. `I’m begging the DEC to stop this.`
Carm Privatera, a resident at the Avila retirement home and former biology professor at the University at Buffalo, said he was concerned with the `nano,` or extremely small, particles from the landfill, and those particles’ effects on health.
`It doesn’t have to stink to be hazardous,` Privatera said. He said he does not want those particles anywhere near him or his body, citing his `spleen, his liver or his left testicle,` as important organs.
Steve Garry, a business owner with property near the landfill, complained that expanding the landfill will drive down property prices for homes in the area.
`No one’s going to want [property] regardless of the price,` Garry said. `We’ll have to sell to welfare recipients. That’s the end of the village.`
Garry also noted that when Mayor Jennings was a city councilman representing the area the Pine Bush is located in, he made a number of comments opposing the landfill’s expansion.
`That’s quite a turnaround,` Garry said.
At the meeting, there was some friction between Tom Lutz, an advocate against the expansion, and the evening’s moderator, Henry Landau. Lutz passed out literature earlier in the evening questioning the absence of New York Assemblyman Bob Reilly, D-Colonie, from meetings regarding the landfill, including Wednesday’s.
`We’re not going to entertain any political bashing,` Landau responded.
Lutz said he was trying to explain `how we got here,` and that was his motivation for making the comments.
`We’re here today because the political process has failed,` Lutz said.
He later claimed that he was rudely, incorrectly and illegally asked to `sit down and shut up.`
Landau later announced that Reilly’s Chief of Staff Tim Nichols was at the meeting.
In a later interview, Reilly said he is interested in the process, but he should not interfere with the process designed by DEC to come up with a compromise for all the interested parties. He also said he resented comments Lutz made that he supports the landfill. Reilly said he is sympathetic to the situation and is hopeful for an adequate solution.
`The solution to this issues is not an easy one,` Reilly said.
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