Out-of-town trash, local gripes

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called on garbage haulers from New York City to stop cutting through the Finger Lakes region's residential neighborhoods and country roads.

One of those companies is New York City-based IESI, the parent company of Seneca Meadows Landfill, a 700-acre site in Waterloo, Seneca County. IESI contracts with scores of subcontractors who move trash from the New York City metro to landfills in the Finger Lakes region, including the 300-acre Ontario County landfill, according to Schumer.

"It's no secret that garbage trucks originating in New York City are circumventing the state's highway system and dangerously driving through communities across the Finger Lakes, leaving behind a trail of fumes, noise and worn-down infrastructure that diminishes the rural region's quality of life," stated Schumer.

Schumer said the trash haulers are leaving major highways in favor of country roads in order to avoid paying tolls and to reduce their fuel costs.

Increased truck traffic from garbage haulers became a major worry recently when Ontario County's landfill operator, Casella Waste Management Inc., received approval to hike its intake of trash 49 percent, from 2,000 to 2,999 tons a day.

While the county Board of Supervisors approved the increase - most supervisors agree that Casella does a good job making the landfill as tolerable as possible, including managing traffic - people still dread more garbage trucks on the road.

"There is no way around it," said Supervisor Norm Teed, R-Phelps, whose town sees a lot of landfill traffic as many haulers go through Phelps after leaving the Thruway, on the way to the landfill on Routes 5 and 20 in Seneca. While landfill trucks are only a part of the problem, he said, "with the increased tonnage, you will have increased traffic."

Under the new permit, the number of landfill trucks using one of the busiest intersections for the Ontario County landfill, Routes 5 and 20 and County Road 6 in Geneva, is about 176 trucks per day, up from about 139.

Casella regional Vice President Tim Cretney said the landfill will now take about 900,000 tons of trash annually, with most of that amount - about 800,000 tons - from outside Ontario County. "There is not a whole lot from New York City proper," he added, though trash does come from a number of downstate counties, as well as from the New England states and other areas in the Northeast.

Cretney said Casella outlines "preferred routes" for haulers, though it does not have the authority to officially regulate haulers' routes. The preferred route coming up from the New York City metro area is to take the Thruway, getting off at Routes 14 and 96 in Phelps, he said. From there, they should take Route 96 west, then south on County Road 6 through Geneva, and west on Routes 5 and 20 to the landfill.

"We are really not an enforcement agency," said Cretney. But Casella does make it clear that haulers are to use main routes and avoid rural roads and residential areas as much as possible, he said.

Schumer reported that a study done by Wells College in Cayuga County found that 200 five-axle single-trailer trucks transport garbage from New York City to landfills in the Finger Lakes region daily. During six consecutive days in May 2006, Wells logged 322 garbage haulers passing through the college's hometown of Aurora, with two-thirds of them 18-wheelers.

Schumer said he has scheduled a meeting in November with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the state Department of Sanitation and IESI haulers, to broker an agreement to keep garbage trucks off local roads and "put them back on the major highways where they belong."

Julie Sherwood can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 263, or at jsherwood@mpnewspapers.com.