To the Editor:

In his Jan. 30 column, Jesse S. Sommer called for the demolition of the giant, “malignant eyesore”  known as Albany Central Warehouse [“So swears the New Scot: Mr. Blum, take down this eyesore,” The Altamont Enterprise, Jan. 29, 202].

Mr. Sommer called the warehouse an “infected pus-filled pimple” that is “crumbling” and that “drags down the neighborhood’s potential. He said a fire at the warehouse burned for six days in 2010, and the warehouse a “festering asbestos fiesta” that contains “toxic insulation.”

He did not say where the rubble should be taken.

The closest construction-and-demolition debris landfill, only a mile or so away in Rensselaer, is the Dunn Waste Connections dump located literally right next to the Rensselaer public school campus attended by 1,000 students, from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. The dump is also in between Rensselaer and East Greenbush neighborhoods and a cemetery.

Rensselaer and East Greenbush residents have been organizing for several years to immediately close the dump. Scores of noisy, dirty, diesel exhaust-spewing tractor-trailer trucks clog downtown Rensselaer streets each weekday going to and from the dump.

The dump frequently emits odors that are sickening residents, students, and workers. Odors frequently permeate the school grounds and ballfields and seep into the school hallways and classrooms. Trucks inside the dump are noisy, especially when backing up, disrupting the students’ education and preventing students from concentrating. Dump owners hope to keep the dump operating well past the year 2030.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has fined dump owners small amounts several times in the past two years for operational violations. Twice last year (in January and September), Rensselaer and East Greenbush residents held formal meetings that I attended with DEC commissioners at DEC state headquarters in downtown Albany.

Both times, DEC leaders told us they are devoting considerable attention to the dump and the DEC has and is taking regulatory and enforcement actions to improve operations. At both meetings, we told the DEC that its actions have been ineffective, we believe operational problems can not be solved, the DEC erred in 2012 when it ignored public comments and permitted the dump to be sited next to the school, it is insane to allow operations to continue, and the DEC or Governor Andrew Cuomo should close the dump immediately.

Rensselaer and East Greenbush residents have posted hundreds of comments on ItStinks.org since last June about how dump operations are repeatedly making them ill; how they often cannot sit on their porches or take a walk outside their homes without being assaulted by odors; and, how, even with windows shut tight, they cannot escape the horrible odors.

Many Rensselaer residents believe the dump creates a negative image of the city that retards positive economic development. Rensselaer and nearby East Greenbush residents have reached a near-consensus that the dump must be shut now. It is my opinion that a public-health emergency exists in the Rensselaer and East Greenbush neighborhoods nearest the dump.

As for where to dispose of the Central Warehouse debris if and when the giant building is demolished, I do not have an answer, but I am certain that nearly everyone in Rensselaer wants no more construction and demolition debris disposed of in their city.

Tom Ellis

Albany