Residents of our county are not only concerned that they have lost control of decisions regarding our local waste issues to the foreign corporation that owns Seneca Meadows and that corporation’s even more distant shareholders, but they are equally concerned that that have become a sacrifice zone.
The term "sacrifice zone" reflects the idea that these areas are being "sacrificed" for the convenience or economic benefit of others. Communities living in these zones often bear the burden of pollution, health risks, and degraded living conditions, so that other areas (often more affluent or politically influential) may avoid such impacts.
"Sacrifice zones are communities identified as possible locations for industries that other communities have refused to accept," explains Mary Ann Coleman, Coordinator for the New Brunswick Environmental Network. "Sacrifice zones lack political clout, money and resources. Often marginalized, they are deemed an expendable environmental cost to maintain North American culture . . .”
The Seneca county area where Seneca Meadows landfill is sited certainly fits all of these definitions. Designated as “economically distressed” and “at risk,” it is a place of low-income and working-class rural communities.
The county has a population of 33,342 (2000 Census), has a per capita income of $20,336 (which is 77.6% of the US National per capita income of $26,173), and is also home to a 10,600-acre former Army depot which the EPA placed on the National Priorities List of Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Sites on July 13, 1989.
In addition to its mega-landfill, Seneca County is also home to a casino and a maximum security prison—further contributing to negative impacts on the communities, including potential safety concerns, increased traffic, and a decline in property values.
Is it any wonder this place was selected to receive 6,000 tons a day of other people’s trash?
(Note: waste generated in Seneca County for landfilling amounts to approximately 1% of the total landfilled there.)
In 1999, thousands of residents even had to be evacuated from the area surrounding this landfill because of a chemical fire that occurred there while, since at least 1997, nearby residents have complained about its odors.
In 2010, members of Concerned Citizens of Seneca County, in partnerahip with Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, and Finger Lakes Zero Waste Coalition, Inc., were awarded an EPA Environmental Justice grant (EPA Assistance ID No. EQ-9722381-0) - one of only 76 of its kind awarded nationally – to educate local citizens about landfill issues.
More to the point, the state’s priority emphasis on land-filling is not consistent with New York State’s Solid Waste Management Plan and its mission statement of using land-filling as a last resort, and, as a result, they have made Waterloo and Seneca Falls, NY the preeminent “landfill sacrifice zone” for NY state.