"It stinks"
Say opponents of landfill expansion

ALBANY COUNTY — As the Rapp Road landfill seeks another expansion midst public outcry against its stench, the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation says those odors have never been tested.

Rick Georgeson, Region IV spokesman for the DEC, told The Enterprise yesterday that the gas seeping into nearby residential areas has never been tested, but that the city of Albany has "verbally agreed" to test the gases as part of its new application for expansion.

The leachate, or liquified garbage, Georgeson said, is tested on a regular basis, as is the groundwater below the landfill’s liner. There have been no violations found in the landfill’s runoff water, he said.
The landfill was fined $50,000 last summer for "excessive odors" and escaping garbage, according to the DEC.

The landfill brought in about $11 million last year for Albany, about 7-percent of the city’s operating budget.

The problem, said Lynne Jackson of Save the Pine Bush, an advocacy group for the preserve, is that the city needs to truly address the garbage problem, not profit from it.
"I’ve begged the Albany Common Council to hold open public hearings on what to do about the garbage"how to fix the garbage problem," Jackson said. "By making garbage a commodity, we’re making it impossible to create a comprehensive solid waste policy."

Jackson said Mayor Gerald Jenning’s deal with the Allied Waste Corporation to dump at the landfill at reduced tipping fees is compounding the problem. Allied Waste is charged only $ 37 a ton as opposed to the $52 charged to the municipalities who dump there.

Rensselaer, Watervliet, Cohoes, Berne, Bethlehem, Knox, Guilderland, New Scotland, Westerlo, Green Island, and Altamont all bring trash to the Rapp Road landfill as part of a consortium.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, typical landfill gases contain 45 to 60 percent methane; 40 to 60 percent carbon monoxide; and small amounts of nitrogen, oxygen, ammonia, sulfides, and hydrogen. The gases also contains trace amounts of non-methane organic compounds such as trichloethylene, benzene, and vinyl chloride.

The department also says that the gases are released through bacterial decomposition, volatilization (turning from liquid to vapor), and chemical reaction. Each landfill’s composition will vary, however, depending on the makeup of garbage dumped there.

Objections to expansion

Nearly 300 residents from Albany, Colonie, and Guilderland came out last Wednesday to say ‘no’ to the proposed landfill expansion.
Emotions ran high at the meeting as nearly all of the residents in attendance, many of whom brought protest signs, spoke out against the landfill’s operations. Most of the complaints pertained to "foul smells," balancing Albany’s budget with garbage profits, and the landfill’s proximity to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

The DEC held the public hearing at the Polish Community Center in Albany during a scoping session on the landfill’s proposed 15-acre eastward expansion.

The Rapp Road landfill is expected to reach full capacity by the end of 2009.

William J. Clark, regional permit administrator for the DEC, facilitated the hearing, which at times became contentious, and kept order as residents and politicians alike voiced their opinions for several hours.
"The only decision we’ve made is to hold a hearing and accept an application," Clark said, asking that there be no interruptions during the meeting. "This process involves a full public review"We’re here to listen."

A stenographer recorded comments for the official record as a panel listened and took notes. The panel included the landfill’s solid waste manager, Joe Giebelhaus, and Clough Harbor and Associates principal, Frank Kalberer, among others.
As the public comment portion of the meeting began, Clark set some "ground rules" on allowing each speaker at the podium to speak "without interruption," and he unsuccessfully asked residents to put away signs that opposed the application.
"This is a neutral forum; I know there are a lot of emotions," said Clark. "Please, put away your signs."
Clark’s request was met with several cries of "First Amendment rights" and "freedom of speech."
"This is not a question of freedom of speech," Clark responded without success.

The meeting continued in an orderly fashion with the signs still on display.

What was said

Michael O’Brien, a member of the Albany Common Council, spoke first.
"We are not served unless the state of New York gets proactive in a waste-management solution," O’Brien said. "What are we talking about" Maybe a 10-year solution""I’m making a request to look at the global issue."

The biggest complaint was well-known to surrounding communities: the smell.
"Something is rotten in Albany," said Carmelo Priveta, a resident of the nearby Avila retirement community. "Let’s take the profit out of garbage. Peddling garbage is only directed toward profit, not to improving quality of life."
A large group of retirement-center residents stood every time one of their fellow residents spoke at the podium. Priveta referred to them as the "Gray Panthers," and said true visionaries are needed to tackle the garbage problem instead of just extending it a few more years.
Many of the speakers were from the village of Colonie including the mayor, Frank Leak. Nearly all of them said they complained about the obnoxious odors daily, but that their complaints "fell upon deaf ears," as one put it.
"The village of Colonie is concerned about its air quality," said Albany County Legislator William Clay. "I would be interested in what exactly is in there," he said about the gases escaping from the landfill.

Clay, who represents parts of Guilderland and Colonie, said that the smell has gotten progressively worse and is concerned an expansion would compound the problem.
"I think it’s insulting that this application is even being considered," said Guilderland’s economic development committee chairman, Donald Csaposs. "An additional expansion should not be considered at all."
Csaposs, who lives in McKownville, said that 50 percent of the landfill’s garbage comes from private haulers and "comes from who knows where."
"The city of Albany has developed one heck of a jones for that trash," said Csaposs. "It’s time for an intervention."

A garbage solution"
The city of Albany is proposing to "overfill" 23 acres of existing landfill, meaning replant the Pine Bush, and add 15 acres of city-owned land in a lateral move to the east. The city has proposed relocating existing landfill infrastructure, such as offices and the recycling center, onto a 3.5 acre parcel east of the landfill entrance road on Rapp Road.

Some of the land is also owned by New York State.
Part of the city’s proposal includes a "habitat restoration plan," that would re-establish linkages from west to east in the Pine Bush Preserve through the Fox Run Mobile Home Park to the west and some over portions of closed landfill to the east.

Albany tried to extend through the trailer park last year, but revoked the application after being sued by Save the Pine Bush and has subsequently donated the land to the Pine Bush Preserve.

The city of Albany purchased a 363-acre parcel in the town of Coeymans to build a new landfill site, but the process has been controversial and riddled with delays. Over 100 acres of wetlands were discovered on the parcel by the United States Army Corp of Engineers, and local residents have been vocal in opposition to the project.
Clough Harbor Principal Frank Kalberer told residents at last week’s meeting that the Coeymans site, called the C-2 site, is in the middle of "extensive mitigation," and that Clough Harbor and Associates were working with the Army Corp of Engineers on the matter.

Kalberer said the Coeymans site wouldn’t be a feasible option for at least 10 to 15 years. The current Rapp Road landfill is not expected to last longer than 2010, and most estimates of the expansion will add only 10 more years to it.
"Obviously the city needs to apply an economically feasible solution to its solid waste," Kalberer said. "The city has looked into a number of different alternatives."

Kalberer said the city has met with a number of local groups on the proposal.
"The city of Albany has never met with Save the Pine Bush on the landfill proposal," Jackson said. "We had to sue the city to get them to abandon their original expansion into the Fox Run Mobile Home Park."

Mayor Gerald Jennings did not return a call from The Enterprise for comment.
As for the Coeymans landfill site, Jackson said, "They’re never going to build that landfill."

Many residents at the meeting criticized Albany for having lax recycling enforcement.

Jackson said that only 9 percent of the garbage going to the landfill comes from municipal pickup in Albany, and, out of that 9 percent, she says, recycling and food composting could nearly eliminate it.
"That landfill would last a lot longer and probably not smell as bad," she said. "We shouldn’t be putting food waste in the landfill."
On Albany’s presentation of its purposed expansion last Wednesday, Jackson said, "For people who don’t know everything about the proposal, the presentation was very confusing."