Trashing women’s rights birthplace
New York State has a rich history of remarkable women paving the way for gender equality. Seneca Falls, in Central New York, is the birthplace of the women’s suffrage movement, which, years later, ensured women across the nation the right to vote.
But now, the town has a different legacy — Seneca Falls is the site of New York State’s largest landfill, Seneca Meadows. Seneca Meadows towers over the beautiful Finger Lakes region at 30 stories tall. The dump is permitted to accept 6,000 tons of trash every single day, 30% of which comes from New York City.
The dump was slated to permanently close in 2025, but Waste Connections — the landfill’s Texas-based, for-profit operator — has applied with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to expand the landfill by another 47 acres and seven stories and extend its operations through 2040.
Is New York’s first female governor going to sit back and watch the birthplace of women’s rights get trashed?
Gov. Hochul made history as the first female governor of New York. Now, she has the opportunity to make history again. Shutting down the state’s largest landfill would signal a major commitment to transitioning away from our throwaway culture towards a zero waste economy.
Hochul has already made nation-leading environmental commitments and legislative reforms. From delivering clean power to investing in environmental justice programs, New York State has long been a leader in environment and climate initiatives. But the mountains of trash in Seneca Falls tell a drastically different story.
The New York State Constitution guarantees every New Yorker the right to clean air, clean water, and a healthful environment. The landfill violates that right for neighboring residents and communities statewide. The governor cannot turn a blind eye — Seneca Meadows has done irreparable damage to the region’s air, water, and environmental quality and poses serious health threats to New Yorkers.
Wastewater and runoff from the landfill contains per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), “forever chemicals” that can cause serious health issues such as cancer and reduced immunity to fight infection. Seneca Meadows hauls millions of gallons of its PFAS-laden wastewater to Watertown, Chittenango, and Steuben County, and even Hochul’s hometown of Buffalo. These localities don’t have the technology or capacity to adequately remove the toxins before it goes into their waterways and drinking water sources.
The state Department of Health has classified a lung cancer cluster in northern Seneca County — encompassing a 25-mile-wide circle impacting Geneva and Auburn. In Seneca County, lung cancer cases are 31% above the state average and 34% above the national average. Its close proximity to the landfill suggests an association with this significantly high cancer rate.
New York’s world-leading Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) calls for 100% net emissions reduction by 2050. New York’s waste sector accounts for 12% of our annual greenhouse gas emissions, and Seneca Meadows alone produces billions of cubic feet of fugitive emissions each year. These emissions degrade our air quality, contribute to rising global temperatures and systemic climate change, and push New York further from meeting our climate goals.
In an effort to move towards a circular economy, the state just released its Solid Waste Management Plan, which maps out a plan to prioritize more sustainable waste management practices and emphasizes reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills, making dumps a last resort.
Signing on to 15 more years of making Seneca Falls New York’s dumping ground directly opposes this strategy. In accordance with the state’s plans, rather than growing our landfilling capacity and moving farther away from our environmental goals, the governor should focus on robust investments in recycling and composting programs, enforcing producer responsibility, supporting reusable and refillable products, and more.
New Yorkers have had enough of the dump, and they’re not afraid to say it. Eight municipalities and two county governments have passed resolutions against the Seneca Meadows landfill expansion, and more than 400 public officials and business owners throughout the Finger Lakes, and 40 New York state senators and assemblymembers have signed letters of opposition to the landfill. The odor is pervasive, the truck traffic is unbearable, and the mountain of garbage, which can be seen for miles, is hideous.
Gov. Hochul, you’re facing a crossroads. Don’t let your legacy as a forward-thinking environmentalist and a champion for women’s rights get buried by a mountain of trash. Direct the Department of Environmental Conservation to reject Seneca Meadows’ expansion permit and shut down the dump once and for all.