As for contamination worries, the leachate is handled in keeping with all regulations, said Baker.
As for the landfill expansion, he said the agreement between the Board of Supervisors and Casella stipulates Casella must take Ontario County waste for the entire life of the 25-year contract.
The board signed the lease in 2003; the contract is due to expire in 2028.
“It is not cost effective to take only Ontario County waste now,” said Baker.
At issue is a proposed pipeline to carry leachate from the Ontario County landfill in the town of Seneca to the city of Canandaigua’s wastewater treatment plant.
The plant already takes leachate from the landfill, though it is trucked in.
The material contains toxins that can’t be removed or made harmless through the existing treatment process, said coalition member Cynthia Hsu. A pipeline to continue bringing millions of gallons of leachate to Canandaigua would only encourage more of the waste, she said, with the chemicals ending up in the watershed.
“We need to get people tuned in to what is going on, to talk to their elected officials,” said coalition member Chris Costello.
The pair and other coalition members had a booth at the Downtown Canandaigua Art & Music Festival over the weekend with information materials about their organization and postcards people could sign and mail to officials.
Locals lobby
The postcard to Mayor Ellen Polimeni and Canandaigua City Council urges the council “to prevent Canandaigua from becoming the permanent home for the landfill’s leachate.”
Another postcard, addressed to the Ontario County Board of Supervisors, addressed the issue of the county opening up a new section of the landfill. The Board of Supervisors recently named itself lead agency for the environmental review process required to open a new area of the county-owned landfill, which is managed by Casella Waste Systems Inc. Though the expansion is within the landfill’s existing boundaries, the project concerns some because it opens up more space to take garbage from outside Ontario County.
The postcard urges the Board of Supervisors to “stop the expansion” and create a plan to limit the amount of garbage taken from outside the county.
Costello said he is concerned the landfill, which belongs to the taxpayers of Ontario County, is being filled with trash from other counties and states, much of which “is more noxious than what we have here.”
“After our lease is up, what do we do with our garbage?” he added.
Priorities
Canandaigua City Supervisor David Baker, who heads the county Environmental Quality Committee, which oversees the landfill, addressed the concerns. Regarding discussions about a pipeline for the leachate, he said, “we are looking at ways to reduce the number of truckloads on the road.” He said a pipeline would reduce the risk of accidents and spills from trucks, as well as reduce fuel emissions. “Why are the Zero Waste people more concerned with digging a sewer line than reducing trucks on the road?” he asked. “Perhaps their priorities are backwards.”
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