The Town of Colonie has approved a consent order permitting the Colonie Landfill operator to pay a fine to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for not reporting it exceeded the action leakage rate at the landfill.
On Thursday, May 15, at the Colonie Town Board meeting, the board approved a settlement of $6,000 offered by the Depart-ment of Environ-mental Conserv-ation.
Because the town holds the permit for the landfill, it is notified of violations and has to approve the documentation, but the operator of the landfill is responsible for paying the fine.
Colonie Public Works Commissioner Jack Cunningham said each cell at the landfill is a dug out area, where the waste is filled in on top of a drainage system. As snow melts or it rains, water seeps down into the drainage system through the waste, which goes into a leachate pond. From there, the water is sent to a water treatment plant to have toxins or chemicals removed.
Cunningham said that no wastewater leaked into the environment and that no one was at risk. The fine was a result of not reporting the amount of water as per recent changes in DEC regulations.
“When it runs more than 20 gallons a day over 30 days, we have to tell the DEC,” said Cunningham.
Rick Georgeson, a spokesman for the DEC, said he could not comment on the matter until all parties had signed the documentation finalizing everything.
He did say that when it is finalized, “hopefully next week, the report will be published on the DEC website.”