By Charles Lamb
Chemical Waste Management, the only commercial hazardous waste site in New York State, will be full within four years and the company is making a heavily opposed bid to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation for a permit to expand the site.
Emergency crews respond four years ago to turned over tanker truck of toxic waste headed for the CWM site near Porter and Lewiston, N.Y. File Photo
If the permit is granted, CWM could continue to haul toxics here for another 40 years or so, bringing dangerous materials to a site near the Niagara River and Lake Ontario in the greater Niagara region from approximately 30 states.
Despite the fact that Lake Ontario already has PCBs in it from CWM’s site and other waste sites near the binational waters, and that every truck that brings toxics here passes schools and sometimes leak, and that the cancer rate for children for some kinds of cancer is higher near their site compared to others in New York, CWM continues to push ahead hard for an expansion permit.
The sprawling Chemical Waste Management (CWM) waste site, located just north of Lewiston, N.Y. in the Porter, N.Y. and inland from the lower Niagara River, made headlines on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border in the late 1970 when the company that then owned and operated it – SCAChemical Services – proposed building a pipeline to the river to discharge treated wastewater from its operations. Following lengthy public hearings at the time, a permit for the pipeline was approved much to the chagrin of numerous communities sharing the waters of the river and Lake Ontario downstream.
For its latest expansion plan, CWM cannot legallyhave a permit granted until the sate approves a Siting Plan, and by law that plan must be geographically equitable. Public hearings were held in November in which the Department of Environmental Conservatino (DEC) presented a second draft of their proposed siting plan.
The good news is that the plan clearly states that there is no need for another hazardous waste landfill for the foreseeable future. It also says that land filling is the least desirable of all ways to dispose of toxics, with less production, recycling, and detoxification on site as preferable.
However, the plan also states that currently there is an equitable distribution of sites! DEC makes this incredible statement by counting recycling sites, small sites where some industries may have landfilled their own wastes, and the fact that they count only the toxics that CWM receives in one year, not the large amount accumulated there over many years!
One person commenting at the hearing said that the idea that there was no equitable distribution would be similar to a judge at a divorce hearing saying, “Let’s see, you have two jointly held accounts. One has a million dollars in it; the other has ten dollars, but there are two accounts and that is equal, so I’ll give each of you one of the accounts!”
The plan also allows a loop-hole by stating that even though there is no need for another hazardous landfill, one might be approved if it was for “the public good” or economic benefit. CWM is currently engaged in a huge campaign to convince people that they provide jobs, pay taxes, make gifts to worthy organizations, etc.
Fortunately, the Niagara County Legislature has passed a resolution stating that hazardous waste landfills are a huge negative to the community, retarding growth and lowering property values. At the hearings, almost everyone who spoke strongly opposed the provisions in the siting plan that are mentioned above (concerning equitable distribution and economic benefit).
People whose work was connected with CWM made favorable comments. The DEC will re-write CWM’s siting plan one more time, and present it by the summer of 2010. They will receive comments until January 14. Comments can be addressed to Mr. John Iannotti, State Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233 7250 or emailed to hwsiting@gw.dec.state.ny.us.
It will also help if those who are concerned to save the environment will join or contribute to Residents for Responsible Government, the local environmental group fighting CWM expansion and attempting to counter CWM propaganda.
CWM has massive financial reserves while RRG is simply a local citizens’ group without the resources to match the constant CWM all-family mailings. Go to their website at www.rrgwny.com. The mailing address is PO Box 262, Youngstown, NY 14174. And you can support the Niagara Group of the Sierra Club, which also is working hard in league with RRG to stop CWM from continuing to bring dangerous toxics here that may find their way into the Great Lakes. Their website is www.newyork.sierraclub.org/niagara.
Did you know that 20% of the liquid surface fresh water of the whole planet is in the Great Lakes? How obvious is it that we shouldn’t be hauling the most dangerous toxics in the world to bury in the watershed near the Lakes, knowing that the Environmental Protection Agency says that all land fills may eventually leak. It is time for us to get involved. Tell the DEC that their job is to be the Department of Environmental Conservation, not the Department of Environmental Contamination!
Charles Lamb is a resident of Youngstown, N.Y., a longtime environmentalist and member of the Niagara Group of the Sierra Club in Western New York.
For more information on this issue and others in our border area visit the North Group of the Sierra Club’s website at newyork.sierraclub.org/Niagara.
