An unlikely body came down hard Thursday on the possibility that CWM Chemical Services is granted more capacity to continue operating as a hazardous waste landfill.
A resolution amended to include sponsorship by all 15 members of the Erie County Legislature passed unanimously at a regular meeting.
The document mentions the highly anticipated proposed Hazardous Waste Siting Plan and says it could be out in a few weeks.
Wording in the plan, which has been worked on for years and through several drafts by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, could have a significant effect on CWM’s proposal for a new landfill, RMU-2. Its current landfill, RMU-1, has about five years of remaining permitted capacity.
“The Erie County Legislature supports sustainable and attractive economic growth and regards hazardous waste landfills as a non-renewable use of the community’s assets,” the resolution states, “posing permanent risk to the environment and imposing an undesirable image on our community, thereby impeding tourism efforts in the Buffalo-Niagara region.”
CWM spokesperson Lori Caso responded to the action Thursday evening, calling CWM a “safe facility that properly disposes of hazardous waste” and calling the facility “central to the (hazardous waste cleanup process) that cleans up our state.”
Without CWM, New York state’s only hazardous waste landfill and one of only 17 commercial hazardous waste landfills remaining in the country, costs for New York state businesses to cleanup such sites would raise prohibitively, she said.
“Alternatives presented in the resolution carry negative environmental and economic impacts that haven’t been considered,” Caso said, including trucking costs to facilities in the Midwest and the carbon footprint of projects. “This could have a crippling effect on brownfields and remediation projects.”
Additionally, Caso added that CWM has taken over 116,000 tons of hazardous waste from Erie County in “recent years.”
Environmental groups disagreed with CWM in a release sent Thursday, congratulating the Legislature and saying the federal Environmental Protection Agency ruled in 1995 that current hazardous waste disposal capacity is adequate.
“For too long, Western New York has stockpiled massive amounts of chemical waste in a landfill facility only two miles from the Niagara River and three miles from Lake Ontario,” Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper Executive Director Julie Barrett O’Neill said in the release. “The Great Lakes hold 95 percent of the surface fresh water supply in the United States and that is precious.”
Included in the release are comments from local residents Amy Witryol, Residents for Responsible Government President April Fideli and Art Klein, vice chairperson of the Sierra Club group representing the Buffalo-Niagara region.
The resolution includes a number of points anti-CWM advocates have pointed out recently, saying CWM imports more waste from other areas than it accepts in-state, that the facility could be “restraining investments in safe, alternative solutions” and past trucks which have arrived at CWM gates with leaks.
Local News
CWM: Erie County lawmakers criticize expansion
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SLIDESHOW: Memorial Day Weekend 2012
Niagara Falls celebrates Memorial Day Weekend activities on Saturday with a parade on Pine Avenue, a memorial service and viewing of the new Veterans Memorial at Hyde Park, a concert series on Old Falls Street and free boat safety inspections by the Niagara County Sheriff Department Marine Division at the City of Niagara Falls Boat Docks on Buffalo Avenue.
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Legislation protecting Falls air base units moves forward
The effort to protect jobs at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station got a boost from a committee in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
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Korean student robbed at gunpoint in Falls
Detectives are investigating the robbery of a 25-year-old woman Wednesday night in front of a motel in the 400 block of Main Street.
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Davis will not seek Murphy removal
Lawyers for accused killer Matthew “Bones” Davis say their client will not ask to have Niagara County Court Judge Matthew J. Murphy III removed from his case.
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Labor group laments economic development efforts
Economic development in New York state has become a joke to some in the area. And many of them are demanding changes to a process which spends approximately $3 billion a year.
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Repaving work on Old Military Road rises to $790K
Sometimes a change is good. Sometimes a change is bad. For the Town of Lewiston, a change can be pretty costly.
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Fifth-grader presents list of 400 names asking for new playground
A 10-year-old boy carrying a petition containing more than 400 signatures asked members of the Niagara Falls School Board on Thursday to consider building a new playground at his school.
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Bomb threat leads to arrest at NT school
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Marching to the new veterans memorial
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Memorial Day may mean cookouts with hot dogs and hamburgers, a trip on the river in a boat or simply a day off from work Monday.
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