Public Outcry: Letters opposing Trash Trains--

Letters sent by area residents to U.S. Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Representatives Massa and Arcuri, NYS Senator Nozzolio, and NYS Assemblyman Kolb: 

Sent November 16th:

I am writing this e-mail to ask that you pro-actively oppose any further or expanded development of both the Ontario and Seneca County landfills, as well as (i) their use for the dumping of garbage from any source other than those two counties, and (ii) the use of any state or federal monies to develop or enhance infrastructure (specifically including rail infrastructure intended to serve such purpose) that will further enable such use.  These two landfills have long since exceeded any sensible notion of reasonable size or capacity, and must be viewed as immediate threats to the health and welfare of all citizens in the area; the odor is beyond noxious, and the long-term threat to one or the area’s most critical water supplies is well documented.

   The continued dumping in the Finger Lakes region of the garbage generated by others is an outrage, and is making a joke of the Finger Lakes area as a tourist destination (it’s most viable shot at economic recovery).  Far from “economic development”, this is nothing short of environmental desecration.  I think we have a right to expect some effort on the part of our elected representative to put a stop to it.  Please let me know how I can help with your effort in this regard.

November 21st:

Mr. Arcuri, thank you for your response.  Shutting down these landfills to outside trash also gets the trucks off the highway, while preserving the environment, protecting our water supplies and maintaining the beauty of the region (so important to the tourist influx we now enjoy).  On the other hand, spending substantial taxpayer dollars on rail infrastructure, rather than serving the public good, further “institutionalizes” the notion that it’s OK to continue using this area as a dumping ground for the entire northeast and eastern Canada.  Getting trucks off the highway is indeed a worthy objective, but completely begs the question about continued use of our area as a mega dump.  Frankly, the appropriate choice is so obvious as to raise serious questions about whose interests are really being represented.  Certainly not the residents of this area!

November 18th:

TO:   Rep. Michael Arcuri (Hse), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen. Chuck Schumer, St. Michael Nozzolio, and St. Rep. Brian Kolb, Rep. Eric Massa

 

RE: Two Grant Requests to Bring Trash by Rail to Seneca Meadows Landfill (SML) in Seneca County:

 

Dear Finger Lakes Representatives:

 

I am writing as a constituent to tell you of my strong opposition to the two grants listed above. 

 

Besides posing risks to air, water, health, and property values these grants would build permanent infrastructure which would ensure, unfairly, that a rural county of less than 35,000 people would remain the “garbage capital of New York State” (now, actually, of the entire Northeastern United States) for decades yet to come. They wrongly promote the export of waste—creating an “out-of-sight, out-of -mind” attitude towards it—when better, safer, more sustainable alternatives for building local economic growth can and should be funded instead.  In addition:

 

• Although both grants mention displacement of trucks they would do almost nothing to reduce trash truck traffic.  On page 5 of the TIGER application its says that SML will only divert about 10% of truck traffic by using the railroad spur leaving over 85,000 truckloads of garbage on the roads at their present daily and yearly tonnage rates. But this is also besides the point.

 

A joint study released in 2001 by Columbia University’s Earth Institute and Center for Urban Research and Policy identifies the long-distance export of waste as a critical threat to the environment no matter how it is transported. The Columbia study goes on to say that “increasing the number of miles traveled also has the negative consequence of increasing the risk of calamity en route . . . [and] because [trash by rail] shipments generally involve a large number of massive units traveling at high speeds and in a single line, if an accident occurs it usually results in multiple collisions causing severe damage.”

 

• Rather than encouraging economic “stimulus” as the applications suggest, trash by rail, we believe, will depress nearby property values and contribute to the exodus of local businesses and drive out prospective new businesses that could otherwise bring new jobs and services into the area.

 

• Seneca County is supporting this private venture of the landfill-railroad but still has no solid waste plan. We understand this to be against New York state policy if not law pursuant to section 27-0107 of the ECL (Environmental Conservation Law). 

 

• These projects are not “shovel ready,” as there are a lot of approvals that will be necessary, including the DEC permit applications and SEQRA review for the rail depot at the landfill site.

 

• No community-type support letters are in these applications, which is because the community at large does not even know about these applications because no prior community outreach and consultation was done.

 

• The TIGER grant mentions the landfill as being “environmentally sensitive.”  However, even well managed and tightly controlled landfills pose a significant threat of future contamination and are very unlikely candidates for redevelopment. Or, as the EPA says: “. . . even the best liner and leachate collection system will ultimately fail. . .”

 

• According to the filed TIGER grant, the $17.5  million dollars of OUR tax dollars would create a total of only 12 permanent jobs (3 at the landfill, and 9 at the railroad). This money would be much better spent and would create many more jobs  (on the order of 5X to 36X) if spent in the recycling/reuse/zero waste arena.

 

In fact, no amount of public money, we believe, should be used to subsidize a multi-national, multimillion-dollar private business, as this money puts sustainable options such as source reduction, reuse, recycling and composting at a competitive disadvantage and provides a disincentive to citizens to curb their waste production and increase their recycling efforts.

 

• The safety of residents, including children playing in adjacent backyards and park areas has not been taken into account, we believe, given the proximity of the tracks to homes, schools, businesses, and places of worship.

 

• In Seneca County, citizens already share an undue burden for the disposal of the state’s waste with the importation of up to 6,000 tons a day of out-of-county garbage—far more than any other county in New York State. Instead of trying to export its garbage problem, this state should take steps to take care of it where it is generated.

 

In other words, NYS needs to follow its own priority directives of “to reduce, to reuse, and to recover,” and force other municipalities to do the same (see ECL Title 1, Sec. 27-0106) rather than using public monies to export trash to distant mega-landfills and acting as an “enabler” of the addiction to the burying-garbage-for-profit business model. NYS should also follow the recommendations of the New York Product Stewardship Council to drive improvements in product design that would reduce public costs and promote environmental sustainability.

 

As my elected representative, please work to deny the NYS DOT grant and the SML rail spur and rail yard/depot portion of the TIGER grant.  The City of Geneva is only a stone’s throw from the Seneca County line and also a community fighting the expansion of our own mega landfill (Ontario County Landfill, Flint, NY) including the siting of dangerous waste gasification technology under development by Casella Waste Management.

 

I would appreciate it if you would let me know of your action in this matter.

February 8th:

Hon. Kirsten Gillibrand

780 Third Ave.

Suite 2601

New York City, NY 10017

Dear Senator Gillibrand:

Taxpayer dollars are being sought to transport garbage and waste into the Finger Lakes Region by rail and I urge you to help stop this from occurring.

Specifically, I am speaking of the following Seneca County Grant applications:

$17.5 Million TIGER Grant (Finger Lakes Railway Spur to Seneca Meadows Landfill)

In the guise of a “public-private partnership” via Seneca County, two private companies,  Seneca Meadows Incorporated/IESI and Finger Lakes Railway Corporation  are seeking precious Recovery Act taxpayer dollars for the simple purpose of allowing more waste and garbage from outside our region be dumped here.  When you read the TIGER grant request, the applicants ask “…that the Benefit/Cost Analysis requirement be waived.”  Of course they do.  They don’t want the spotlight to shine on the meager, if any, benefits that the public receives while they reap millions at our expense.  A promise of 12 paltry jobs isn’t worthy of this amount of public investment (and this doesn’t take into consideration the number of trucking jobs lost as more trash arrives by rail). 

I must admit they have chutzpah.  Seeking taxpayer dollars to buy and improve portions of the existing Norfolk Southern line, and other rail lines they now privately hold, these private companies just want us to turn these improvements over to them without any meaningful economic consideration to the public in return. 

Please help stop this from happening.

The recent intelligence failures over securing our country have been cited as a “failure to connect the dots”.   Let’s not fail to connect the dots here.  The owners of Seneca Meadows Landfill and Finger Lakes Railway are trying to access the railroad network, using our money, to bring millions of tons of trash into our region.  If this kind of permanent infrastructure happens, how long will it be before more garbage and waste is hauled by train to the landfill operating in Ontario County, by Casella Waste Systems?  Or the next proposal for a major landfill located along this rail network run by Finger Lakes Railway Corp, the other proponent of these grants?

I and many other likeminded citizens will not fail to connect the dots.  We do not intend for the Finger Lakes to become the permanent dumping ground for garbage and trash from outside this region.  I ask you to stand with us. 

To that end, I ask that:

1)You help deny the current grant and funding requests to bring garbage and trash by rail to the Seneca Meadows Landfill and the Finger Lakes Region

2)Use your office to sponsor legislation that will promote waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting – giving special emphasis on funding of new business creation in these areas

3)Use your office to sponsor Extended Producer Responsibility legislation to significantly reduce the garbage and waste streams that now exist

4)Use your office to sponsor legislation requiring the pre-treatment of leachate at landfill to stop the pollution of our lakes and watersheds

These are critical times for our region on many fronts.  Back when our country was being founded, these words were being sung, and I find them particularly poignant now:

Great nature’s law inspires,

All freeborn souls unite,

While common interest fires

Us to defend our rights.

I ask you to stand to defend our right to an environment unsullied from millions of tons of garbage.  I ask you to help protect and preserve what Nature has so bountifully provided us.  For many of us, this is a litmus-test issue of where to place our trust.  I hope we can count on you in this issue and I look forward to hearing from you.

January 29th:

Dear Mr. Arcuri,

I have been following the issue of garbage importation into the Finger Lakes region for the past year. During that time It has also come to my attention that you are in support of and have actively been working to make the trash train project to Seneca Meadows a reality. The trash for cash programs in both Seneca and Ontario counties are not in the best interests of the people, the environment or the economies of the Finger Lakes region. Activities such as yours in support of big garbage importing initiatives can only be seen as short-sighted,  and of great disappointment to the people who supported your candidacy in '08, of which I am one. The Trash Train initiative  has  simple objectives : to use public funds to build infrastructure that will guarantee a flow of garbage into Seneca County for the foreseeable future while enrichng the garbage company that runs the landfill. The publicly-traded green-washed excuses in support of the the trains are cover for the  real objective of guaranteeing garbage influx into the area for years to come.  Building rail spurs to a privately owned landfill is a misuse of public funds and is anathema to  sustainable and zero-waste based principles of solid waste management. That you , Mr. Arcuri, would side with the garbage companies in what is clearly a grab for stimulus funds to solidify their garbage import business is deeply disappointing to your (now former) supporters. 

Hear this: the people of Seneca county are hurting. The Seneca Meadows operation is an abomination, both environmentally and politically. In Ontario County, more of the same. And you Mr. Arcuri are at Ground Zero. This is your district, these are your people. 

 

Unless there is a public change (a very public change) in your attitude and support of the garbage trains,  there is no doubt that the  task of organizing opposition to your re-election will begin in earnest. Actually, it already has as the word of your activities has begun to spread throughout your district.  You came into office with a mandate to help the people of your district. Your support for the trash train initiative runs counter to this mandate.

One last piece of advice: underestimate the negative impact of supporting big garbage at your own peril. There is a substantive undercurrent of anger and unhappiness with the garbage import business in both Ontario and Seneca Counties and it is growing. Without  a major change in direction, your upcoming candidacy will not survive it.  

February 1st:

As a resident of the Finger Lakes, I feel strongly that we should not support the importation of garbage by allowing spur train lines to be built to facilitate the transportation of the garbage.  And given the current economic situation. I would highly resent my tax dollars being used to make garbage companies and train companies richer.

 

Please do NOT support the construction of spur rail lines in New York.

January 30th:

I couldn't agree more with a recent letter to the editor, titled "Rail spurs are great but not for trash," written in support of enhancing rail service to the Finger Lakes but against improving the rail spur for Seneca Meadows. We should be doing everything we can to limit the growth of mega-landfills because their presence only encourages us to produce more trash. At some point, landfills have to be limited. We need to begin seeking other solutions to our trash-disposal problem besides constant expansion of our capacity for wastefulness. This rail spur would only make this landfill more viable when public policy should be aimed instead at making landfills less and less viable. This is not to mention the fact that upstate New York seems unfairly burdened with more than its share of landfills.

I would also like to address the other point made, that passenger service in this region would be a real asset. This area is unique in several ways: first because it has excellent connective corridors via both road and rail lines that link the area's major population centers. For example, the railroad, Route 31 in Wayne County and Routes 5&20 in Ontario, Seneca, and Cayuga counties all link a string of communities that could easily be served through public transportation. The bad news is that there is no public transportation to speak of (try riding a bus to work) and that we have more than enough need for this service because unemployment and poverty rates are high. Private vehicle ownership is an expense that hampers a significant number of people in this area. I would venture to guess that we have one of the highest under-served populations in the nation with regard to public transportation if one factors in income level and population density.

Rather than spending money on something that we hope public policy will soon make obsolete -- landfill capacity -- I hope that policy makers will instead invest in something that would significantly improve the lot of people in the entire region: better passenger rail service.

January 29th:   

I am writing in opposition to the above-mentioned grants.  As your constituent, I assure you that any federal or state monies supporting the continued importation of garbage, by any means, into the Finger Lakes area, will be opposed by me, and many voters in your district.  If these projects go forward, your upcoming candidacy is at risk.

     Taxpayer money to support garbage-hauling by a privately-owned, foreign company is contrary to the uses of federal stimulus funds, and your support of it is unconscionable.  The three billion dollar per year tourism economy of the Finger Lakes is at stake, and we refuse to be the dumping ground for out-of-area garbage any longer.  The impairment of the health and welfare of the residents of your district should be paramount, and your lip-service to this end is not acceptable.  As you may know, Seneca County has no Local Solid Waste Management Plan and permits will take some time.  Thus, the portions of these projects which support garbage-hauling are not “shovel-ready” and are contrary to the stated use of federal stimulus funds.

     Additionally, the TIGER grant would create only twelve jobs, while Zero Waste initiatives could create exponentially many times that number.  To this aim, we require that you, as our representative, do the following:

•Deny portions of any funding requests which serve to transport garbage to the Seneca Meadows Landfill, or the Finger Lakes region.

•Cease your efforts to promote garbage deposition in the Finger Lakes region.

•Promote waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting through the release of funds to establish small business creation in these areas.

•Cease efforts to subsidize foreign corporations, such as the parent corporation of Seneca Meadows Landfill, which continue to pollute our land, air and water.

•Cease public-private “partnerships” which promote the degradation of your district and threaten the health, welfare and economic stability of its residents.

•Sponsor legislation establishing fees for out-of-area garbage deposition.

•Sponsor legislation to require the pre-treatment of leachate at NYS landfills, which pollutes our watershed and lakes.

•Sponsor Extended Producer Responsibility legislation.

     As your constituent, I encourage you to be aware that your actions speak louder than words, and I am monitoring your job performance very closely.  I anxiously await your measurable response.