A legislative resolution to disqualify the Town of Plattekill from consideration as a feasible location for a county landfill couldn’t muster the numbers at a May 16 meeting of the Ulster County Legislature. The 11 to 11 vote fell one short of the number required to push the resolution over the finish line.
The bill needed the vote of Republican legislator Herbert Litts, who was absent from the meeting for a business trip
After the votes were called Joe Maloney engaged in an act of procedural magic. He switched his vote from in favor of the resolution to against it. His reversal had the effect of creating a majority of legislators now against the vote. As a member of the majority he had just created, at the next legislative session, Maloney will enjoy the prerogative to call for a reconsideration of the vote.
All six of the Republicans present voted in favor of Plattekill’s exemption. So did five of the 16 Democrats, composed of three from the southern part of the county plus Kingston legislator Phil Erner and until his last-minute switch Joe Maloney.
Plattekill already hosts one of 85 Superfund sites in New York State. Though closed by the Ulster County Department of Health (UCDH) in 1977, the Hertel landfill remains registered as an active National Priorities List (NPL) site with the Environmental Protection Administration.
Fifteen acres of the 80-acre landfill had been used as a disposal area for industrial waste for 14 years. Wetlands border the property on three sides. An unnamed river crosses the property, and there are two aquifers beneath it. The area surrounding it is zoned residential. Approximately 1350 people live within three miles of the landfill, 500 within one mile. Area residents obtain their drinking water from individual wells.
Plattekill resident Joe Malfa has lived within two miles of the site since 1995. He’s disturbed to hear that locations near the capped landfill had recently been identified as promising sites for a new county landfill.
“Twenty-eight years later,” said Malfa, speaking before the legislature at its May meeting, “I find out the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency [UCCRA] had permission for a study for a landfill. The study that was kept secret for two years .… I ask you, when you vote, are you voting to keep people in Ulster County safe?”
The county agency paid $11,000 for a study by the company Hydroquest, but chose to keep county residents in the dark about its existence for two years. Characterized as a draft paper never accepted by the agency, its findings were judged incomplete. The report was only released to the public after outgoing board members of the UCRRA spoke to a reporter about its existence.
Speaking before her vote against the resolution to exempt Plattekill, Shandaken legislator Kathy Nolan took pains to emphasize the scientific value of the study going forward, She acknowledged it had “not been released properly.”
Her argument drew amused scorn from minority leader Ken Ronk.
“I think I just heard a synonym for the word ‘secret’,” he quipped.
The 12 legislators against the resolution exempting Plattekill said they didn’t want inadvertently to set a precedent by which all Ulster County municipalities would individually petition the legislature to opt out of future landfill siting. That would not be responsible waste management, they argued.
Her environmental bona-fides beyond question, legislator Manna Jo Greene voted against the resolution, even while characterizing Plattekill’s situation as an issue of environmental justice.
Before her vote in support of the resolution, legislator Gina Hansut recalled what was at stake. “This is the same community who lives with a Superfund site literally in their back yard,” said Hansut. “I hope moving forward, we have learned some lessons to be mindful of our residents and to be more transparent with information gathered.”
Holding his vote to the end, Plattekill legislator Kevin Roberts requested a tally of the votes cast before striking a defiant tone.
“The end of this story has only one conclusion,” said Roberts. “There will not be a landfill in Plattekill anywhere. Period. There may not be a solar array, either. The people in the Hertel area are very upset that we’re disturbing that ground for the amount of electricity we’re going to get. I heard one resident say that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. I’m going to be a yes on this resolution.”
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