It was a fantastic first day of spring on the floor of the New York State Senate last week – especially for the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier regions.
That was because, for the second consecutive year, the Senate unanimously approved legislation to stop the construction of what would become one of the state’s largest waste incinerators at the former Seneca Army Depot in Romulus, smack in the heart of the Finger Lakes region.
The difference this time is that the state Assembly has also approved the measure, known as the “Finger Lakes Community Preservation Act,” and now it goes to Governor Andrew Cuomo to be signed into law.
The signs are that the governor will approve it and, consequently, block the project. The new law would prohibit the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) and others from issuing a waste-to-energy permit for a proposed trash incinerator under specific conditions.
I have appreciated the opportunity to co-sponsor the legislation and join legislative colleagues including local Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, Senator Pam Helming, Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb and many others to fight for its enactment.
Most of all, however, it’s a credit to the dozens of local governments and school boards, and hundreds of environmental organizations, winery owners, farmers, business and community leaders, and concerned citizens who have worked tirelessly to lead the charge against the proposed incinerator. To say the least, it has been an impressive coalition and an effective grassroots effort.
The president of one leading advocacy group, Joseph Campbell of Seneca Lake Guardian, said, “The Legislature has come together in a bipartisan fashion to protect the Finger Lakes from this toxic incinerator. A broad coalition of environmental groups, businesses and local and regional governments support this bill because the proposed incinerator would harm the environment and threaten the growing winery and tourism industries. We urge Governor Cuomo to sign this bill so we can put this outrageous proposal behind us and go back to growing the Finger Lakes economy.”
Carol Doolittle, a member of the New York Wine Industry Association and co-owner of Frontenac Point Vineyard, highlighted the importance of this action “to protect our environment and the tourism livelihood of thousands of small businesses… The focus should be on reducing waste, not sending it to rural New York, where it will negatively impact residents as well as people who travel here to enjoy the beauty of the land. Landfills and incinerators are not beautiful. If they were, the waste would be disposed of where it is generated.”
There is no questioning the risk this project posed to the quality, health, and overall safety of many communities across the Finger Lakes region and, don’t forget, the Southern Tier.
The coalition against the Circular EnerG project expertly made the case that an incinerator of this magnitude would spew toxic ash resulting from the burning of a range of solid wastes. The variety of chemical outputs released would make it difficult to comply with emissions and toxic waste limits. In other words, siting a trash incinerator in the center of the Finger Lakes region, with its associated air and ash pollution, would damage local tourism as well as the wine and agricultural industries.
It’s also critical to note that the incinerator would require the daily delivery of more than 2,500 tons of trash -- transported by heavy truck after heavy truck after heavy truck -- traveling across Southern Tier and Finger Lakes roadways and throughout area communities.
The scenario was troubling, to put mildly. As I said on the floor of the Senate last week, we want to be known for our wine and our tourism, not for our landfills and garbage truck traffic.
Governor Cuomo should swiftly sign this legislation into law.
