Don't landfill regulations truly protect us? Sure. Just like wearing a seatbelt does while your car’s on fire, or a fence keeps your garden gnomes from running off to join the circus.
The reality is that New York's solid waste management system actually encourages corporations and municipalities to maximize the amount of garbage they accept for landfilling by taking advantage of a built-in system of financial incentives such as tipping fees and so-called host-community payments.
These incentives allow all involved parties—including the state—to profit from landfill operations, leaving surrounding communities to enjoy the constant aroma of rotting waste. That's how the system operates—it’s not designed to protect the environment or public health; it’s designed to prioritize economic gain.
For example, residents living near the Seneca Meadows landfill have been raising concerns about their health since at least 1997. After studying the site, the NYS Department of Health concluded: “It is possible for extreme landfill odors to cause adverse health effects in exposed individuals,” and “No air study… can quantify and evaluate every potential toxin in landfill gas.”
Not exactly confidence inspiring, perhaps you’d agree.
Moreover, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is critically understaffed and deeply politicized. In 2010, the DEC Commissioner admitted that the agency wasn't adequately equipped to protect human health or address environmental damage—an honest statement that led to his dismissal the very next day for “sounding the alarm.”
According to the Albany Times Union, the Commissioner said, “Many of our programs are hanging by a thread,” and that “the public would be shocked to learn how thin we are in many areas.” He also warned, “The risks to human health… have already increased with respect to enforcement,” and noted that the DEC was “in the weakest position it has been since it was created 40 years ago.”
In short, the DEC has failed in its duty to protect the citizens of New York State. Instead of following its own policies and regulations, it has allowed corporations and public authorities to continue polluting the environment and threaten human health.
In an unrelated event, in 1998, when Houston-based Waste Management announced plans to ship millions of tons of New York garbage through New Jersey to Virginia, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman issued a press release with the bold title: “Whitman to New York’s Garbage Plan: Drop Dead.”
When will we be bold enough to say the same?