The Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA), the public authority concerned with all materials recyclable, compostable and wasted, kept its cards close to its vest at its board meeting on April 27.
Queried by Ulster County legislator Manna Jo Greene, members of the board declined to provide the details of the two responses received by the agency to its March 10 Request For Proposal (RFP), which sought a company to perform a feasibility study for the placement of countywide landfill.
“I’m just wondering at what point,” asked Greene, “the RFP and the responses to the statements of interest will be released to the public.”
Board chair Andrew Ghiorse explained that he wasn’t sure because the agency didn’t have all the information yet.”
“I don’t know the legalese,” chimed in UCRRA’s executive director Greg Olivier, “but I don’t think it would be appropriate while we’re reviewing them.”
After some encouragement from Daily Freeman correspondent Bill Kemble, Olivier did agree to reveal the identities of the companies which had responded to the RFPs. They were Cornerstone and Barton & Loguidice.
Why could he not share the numbers?
“I didn’t say necessarily that I can’t,” replied Olivier. “I said it wouldn’t be appropriate. There is a difference. I wasn’t given a legal opinion.”
An interview with UCRRA executive director Greg Olivieri
Counsel for the agency Kenneth Gilligan was not physically present in the room, but was attending the meeting remotely. Neither Olivier nor Gilligan attempted to provide a legal justification.
That sort of hazy communication with a very interested public has led to misunderstandings between the UCRRA and county residents before. Most recently, in its hunt for siting landfills, the UCRRA in July 2021 utilized the services of a company called Hydroquest to help identify potential sites in the county that would conform to state DEC landfill-siting criteria.
Potential landfill siting areas in Lloyd, Esopus, Rosendale, Gardiner, Shawangunk, Wawarsing and Hurley were sounded out and dismissed. Unbeknownst to residents of Plattekill, Hydroquest had identified two attractive site locations within that municipality, with an area near the former Hertel Landfill particularly catching the imagination of the engineers performing the study.
“That landfill has been shut down since 1986,” said Plattekill legislator Kevin Roberts. “Fourteen acres of it is a Superfund site, which we don’t want anybody going near that and disturbing that ground.”
The UCRRA didn’t share the preference arrived at in the study with Plattekill or with legislator Roberts for more than a year. Roberts said that had been intentional.
“There were comments made by the former chairwoman of the board of directors, Katherine Bienkafner,” asserted Roberts, “that they were intentionally keeping it away from the neighbors.”
By not releasing the findings in a timely manner, according to Roberts, the agency hoped opposition in the town wouldn’t have a chance to organize against the plan.
Nothing quite summons the NIMBYism of a community of homeowners quite like a secret proposal for a dump in their back yard. The response when Plattekill residents became acquainted with the findings of the study kept under wraps was predictable.
“From what I understand, written in the past [agency] minutes, it was done under the request of the New York State DEC,” asserted Roberts. “If you’ve read the report looked at it, it’s not a good report. You know, it is just a waste of $11,000.”
Most serious people agree that siting a landfill somewhere in Ulster County is inevitable. No one has yet figured out a way to coax one of the 23 municipalities into volunteering themselves for the honor.
“The two main concerns communities have are traffic and odor,” said Greene. “And by reducing the amount of waste destined for a landfill you reduce the number of trucks or vehicles going into a landfill.”
Greene, who represents Rosendale and Marbletown, is widely recognized as the county legislature’s expert on environmental matters. She projects that the amount of waste currently trucked out from Ulster County to Seneca Meadows in the Finger Lakes region will have declined significantly before a landfill could feasibly be sited within the county. If maximum waste diversion is practiced, she says, the possibility of an Ulster County siting becomes the reality.
“You pull out the organics and you reduce the odors considerably,” said Greene. “Organic material, when it decomposes in a landfill, releases methane. But if you compost it with aerated conditions, it does nothing. It makes a very nice soil amendment.”
Half the battle is won if recyclables are removed from the waste stream and if organics are directed towards composting, she said. .
“The other low-hanging fruit to address this problem,” said Greene, “is to keep construction and demolition debris separate, right? And that’s because first of all it’s bulky. But much of that can be recycled sheet rock. And ironically, one of the major sources of odor in a landfill is sheet rock.”
Executive director Olivier says he’s been tasked with moving forward with a broader or more comprehensive study than that performed by Hydroquest. Having been hired in October 2021, however, he’s relatively new to the job.
“Right now, the agency is faced with hiring the company and reviewing their feasibility study,” explained Greene, “and then also reviewing very preliminary statements of interest. That is where I think the real crossroads are, which is, are we going to let some company come in, pay them a small fortune to manage our waste and essentially, privatize the system? Or are we going to take real responsibility, maximize waste diversion, and find an appropriate landfill?”
The fact that the agency is even performing the study baffles Roberts.
“Honestly, I don’t even know why they’re doing the report,” said Roberts. “The recovery agency doesn’t have any funds to pay for landfill. Why are they doing a study? The county legislature should be doing the report.”
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