Published: July 31, 2008 05:03 pm      

GUEST VIEW: State needs to get hazardous waste policy

About 75,000 tons of PCB wastes from Queensbury are headed to CWM in Porter, despite the original state DEC decision to destroy them on-site with safe technology.

The DEC was prohibited by law from accepting the one bid it received for full on-site remediation because that bid exceeded the DEC engineer’s estimate.

While it is disappointing that the second round of DEC bidding did not deter land disposal, the fact remains, bad New York policy for the past 15 years limited DEC’s choices.

Prices at hazardous waste landfills have dropped dramatically for more than 15 years because of overcapacity in the market. That drove away healthy competition and made the existing, safer technology more expensive to use on site.

There are reportedly only three owners of the equipment in the market that would take care of the more concentrated contamination on site. We were told one had equipment under repair, another was working on an EPA project, and the third probably knew he was the only bidder.

Three newspapers reported that the DEC had already awarded a bid when news of this latest shipment broke. Presumably CWM does not expect DEC to break a contract under law.

CWM stood by and let the Town of Porter Board violate its CAC Agreement with a resolution that divides us against the rest of the state over a sliver of the hazardous wastes dumped here we can do nothing to stop. If we did, what we would get instead is as bad or worse, and the people of Queensbury would be the victims.

Fighting a done deal and one that pits us against the rest of the state weakens our ability to win the war on the upcoming Hazardous Waste Siting Plan, to finally move state policy toward safer and permanent cleanups, and put us out of our toxic landfill misery.

A Porter Town Board member quoted in last week suggested the state landfill the PCBs somewhere else in New York. Ironically, that would help CWM expand, because CWM could then meet the DEC’s geographic distribution test. Today, CWM flunks that test because it is the only hazardous waste landfill. A second landfill in NY would not stop CWM expansion, but instead would help it — and maker safer alternatives even less cost-effective.

Last week the Erie County Legislature called for an end to hazardous waste landfill operations anywhere in New York.

In response, CWM told the papers it took in 116,000 tons of waste from Erie County in “recent years.” But that’s more hazardous waste than the entire State of New York shipped to CWM the past two years, according to DEC.

Division and myths will help only CWM in the upcoming statewide Hazardous Waste Siting Plan hearings.

Undoubtedly with Sen. Maziarz’s blessing, former Gov. Pataki appointed CWM’s district manager to the New York State Great Lakes Commission and reappointed him late in 2006 after vetoing our hazardous waste bill. Let’s hope we get better notice and help from Maziarz in the future.

After Queensbury, we are told there are no other such PCB cleanups planned in the state, because the biggest and most toxic sites have been cleaned up. The Hudson River PCBs are not coming here.

Most CWM waste comes from outside the state and is just as dangerous as the PCBs headed here. We can expect much more unless we stop CWM’s pending application to expand when its current landfill reaches capacity in five years.

Governor Paterson, we implore you to break from the flawed policy of your two predecessors, and make safe alternatives more available. Governor, adopt a policy that the state will discourage more hazardous waste landfill capacity.

Amy Witryol is a Lewiston resident.