DEC HEARING: Second hearing, same review

Residents, local officials again take issue with DEC siting plan

By Mark Scheer<br><a href="mailto:scheerm@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Mark</a>

A second round of comments from Niagara County residents produced similar reviews for a proposed statewide hazardous waste siting plan.

And this time, the residents who believe the state has wrongfully concluded that New York’s hazardous waste disposal facilities are equally distributed were joined in their fight by a contingent of local elected officials.

“One Love Canal is enough for Western New York,” said Village of Lewiston Mayor Richard Soluri, one of seven area politicians who attended a hearing at Lewiston-Porter Senior High School to speak out against the current draft of the state’s Hazardous Facility Siting Plan.

More than 200 people gathered in the school’s auditorium for the second local public hearing on the current draft siting plan. The meeting came a day after a similar hearing in Niagara Falls in which the majority of speakers criticized representatives from the state Department of Environmental Conservation for producing what they believe is another subpar hazardous waste planning document.

While roughly 40 Chemical Waste Management employees attended the meeting as a show of support for the siting plan that may ultimately decide the future of their facility in the Town of Porter, landfill opponents accounted for the majority of the crowd and weren’t shy when it came to voicing their displeasure about the plan, the DEC and the amount of hazardous waste being trucked through their community.

“We refuse to be the nation’s dumping ground any longer,” said April Fideli, president of Residents for Responsible Government, a Lewiston-based non-profit group that has been fighting expansion of the CWM landfill for years.

The siting plan is being developed by the DEC in an effort to comply with a 1987 state law that called for the creation of a plan to guide hazardous waste disposal operations in New York. Thursday’s hearing focused on the current version of the siting plan draft, the DEC’s fifth attempt. Approval of the siting plan is needed in order for CWM to pursue the expansion of its landfill in Porter.

Several critics in attendance lamented the fact they were forced to attend similar hearings several times before over the course of several years and yet the DEC has not been able to complete an adequate siting plan. Some said they were perplexed as to why the DEC couldn’t understand their main concerns, including the documented incidences of cancer and other illnesses in the community near the landfill operation and the potential negative impact of hazardous waste on the surrounding environment, including the Niagara River and Lake Ontario. A few residents questioned CWM’s compliance record with state guidelines for hazardous waste operations and the DEC’s ability and willingness to enforce violations.

“We hope someday CWM will be held to an even bigger standard — the law,” said Amy Witryol, a Lewiston resident and member of the Community Advisory Board for CWM.

Jane Richardson, who has lived in the Town of Porter since 1937, suggested the DEC’s “dismal” record of performance on the waste siting issue should make them a prime target for elimination as Gov. David Paterson and state lawmakers make budget cuts to address a mounting deficit.

“I think that’s what they refer to as job security,” Richardson said of the agency’s inability to produce a satisfactory siting plan. “You know, you write one up and it’s a dismal failure, then you can do it over and over again and your job is safe.”

Concerns about the siting plan and the DEC were shared by local political leaders.

State Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Lewiston, called the current version of the siting plan an “improvement, but still an enormous disappointment.”

State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, called the plan “fatally flawed” and took extra time at the podium to single out one individual for his involvement in its development: DEC Commissioner Peter Grannis. Maziarz said the draft siting plan was more like a plan by Grannis to allow CWM to continue operating as the state’s primary dumping facility. Ultimately, Maziarz said, it is Grannis who will decide whether the siting plan moves forward and, therefore, it is Grannis who should be held responsible by concerned Niagara County citizens.

“It’s unconscionable and it’s wrong,” Maziarz said. “We’ve had enough and we’re not going to take it anymore.”

Cancer survivor and County Legislature Vice Chairman Clyde Burmaster, R-Ransomville, described living on Parker Road in the Town of Porter, an area known in the neighborhood as the “cancer cluster.” Burmaster told how he lost a sister-in-law to cancer and several other neighbors and friends over the years. He believes ridding the community of its hazardous waste landfill would not only improve the area, but also perhaps save a few lives.

“I am here tonight to do whatever it takes to protect the health of my family, my friends and my neighbors,” Burmaster said. “Yes, even to the point where I would have to get down on my knees and beg you, DEC, for my life.”

DEC officials also heard from CWM employees and a representative from a local trucking firm who said they supported the siting plan as written and were against any planning document that might inhibit the continued operation of the Porter landfill.

Ken Ventry, a 10-year employee of CWM, address the crowd on behalf of the company’s 80 local employees, about 40 of whom attended the meeting and stood during his comments. Ventry said the site is safe and essential to brownfields cleanup projects and businesses in New York that are involved in such work.

“We are proud to work at CWM,” Ventry said.

Geoffrey Naughton, who is about to enter his 31st year on the job at CWM, echoed Ventry’s comments, saying if the facility wasn’t safe he wouldn’t have stayed as long.

“I can attest to the safety of this site,” he said.

Jonathan Price, a representative from Price Trucking, a frequent carrier of waste materials for CWM, encouraged people to consider the impact CWM’s closure would have on businesses that deal with the facility, including his own.

“Letting CWM move out of this space doesn’t just affect CWM,” he said.

Town of Lewiston Supervisor Fred Newlin said he understood the concerns of CWM workers, but argued that the county should be looking to produce jobs in other, less environmentally challenging industries, such as environmental cleanup. He encouraged everyone to begin asking the question of what it is the community wanted for its future — a landfill or something more.

“It’s about time things start to change and I think that time has come now,” Newlin said.

Thursday’s hearing was the last of ten held by the DEC across the state. Comments made during the meeting will be considered as agency officials revise the current draft siting plan. Another round of public hearings is scheduled for next year. The DEC hopes to have a finalized version of the siting document completed and presented for approval by the state Legislature and the governor after the second round of hearings.