Melissa Treers, P.E.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Division of Materials Management
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233-7260
RE: DEC Must Restore Existing Slope Rules
Dear Ms. Treers,
I respectfully submit the following comment on DEC’s proposed revisions to the solid waste regulations and the draft generic environmental impact statement (Draft GEIS) accompanying those proposed changes.
I urge DEC to withdraw the proposed revisions to the landfill slope rules. The new slope rules will allow a very substantial increase in the capacity of every permitted landfill in New York. The possibility of slope failure under the new slope rules is especially high in landfills taking substantial amounts of drilling wastes. Drilling wastes are four times as dense as industrial and municipal waste, and this high density increases the risk of slope failure.
The Draft GEIS does not adequately address all the areas of environmental concern with the proposed new slope rules, including the risks of increased slope failure and increased impacts on air and water from substantially expanded landfills. Nor does the Draft GEIS take into account the substantial expansion in the capacity of New York landfills that has taken place in recent years as a result of the increased privatization of New York’s solid waste landfills. Most municipal landfills in New York have been effectively privatized under lease arrangements that typically prohibit the county owner of the landfill from opposing the private operator’s expansion plans. Private operators seek to increase landfill revenues by filling permitted landfill space rapidly and then seeking expansion of landfill capacities. In every instance, DEC has approved expansion proposals.
As more and more landfills in New York are being expanded, larger and larger amounts of land are being used for landfills, more and more air emissions are being generated and more and more waterbodies are being exposed to the risks of water contamination at the landfill sites and in the waterbodies into which the treatment plants handling landfill leachate discharge their effluent.
The review conducted in the Draft GEIS of the new slope rules is not adequate because it fails to: 1. identify all areas of relevant environmental concern, 2. take a “hard look” at the environmental issues identified, and 3. present a reasoned elaboration for why the identified environmental impacts will not adversely affect the environment.
DEC must conduct an adequate environmental review of the consequences of allowing a very substantial increase in the capacity of every permitted landfill in New York under the new slope rules and determine whether such expansions are consistent with New York’s solid waste laws which are based on a policy of reducing waste disposal by landfilling.
Because I believe the environmental costs of continuing to expand New York’s landfills will be too high, I urge DEC not to backslide on the existing regulatory limits on landfill slopes.
Sincerely,
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