State blasts Rensselaer over trash processing
DEC says the city must reopen assessment and take appropriate action
Despite getting an earlier pass from the city, state environmental officials have “grave concerns” about a large trash processing plant proposed for Rensselaer, according to correspondence obtained by the Times Union. And the city ’s mayor-elect said the proposed BioHitech trash processing plant permit process was mishandled by the outgoing administration.
The State Department of Environmental Conservation says it will almost certainly need more environmental information for the proposed plant to move forward even though the city council in 2018 gave the developers a special use permit.
“It is now incumbent upon the city of Rensselaer, to the fullest extent provided by applicable law, to reopen the environmental impact assessment process ... and take appropriate corrective action,” DEC Regional Director Keith Goertz wrote to outgoing Rensselaer Mayor Richard Mooney in November.
The DEC letter alleges a num
ber of lapses and shortcuts the Rensselaer City Council made in saying there was no need for a full-scale review known as a SEQR A or State Environment Quality Review Act study. The letter comes amid ongoing criticism by city residents of another refuse facility — the existing S. A. Dunn construction debris landfill.
Nearby residents are saying that odors, dust and heavy truck traffic continue to plague the area surrounding S.A. Dunn, which is also next to the city ’s junior and senior high schools.
Additionally, some have questioned why DEC approved the Dunn project in the first place. The state agency may be acting with extra caution in reviewing yet another debris operation proposed for the small city that could become another source of complaints.
The landfill also became a city election issue in November when Mooney, a Democrat, lost his seat to Republican challenger Mike Stammel, who has been a longtime landfill critic.
Stammel ran in part on opposition to the Dunn Landfill, whose former owners had contributed to the city’s Democratic committee. He takes office in January and said he agrees that a full environmental study is needed of the BioHitech proposal. He also blasted the city ’s incumbent planning committee members for not giving the proposal more scrutiny.
“I am just stunned by the language that DEC put in the letter,” Stammel said.
“You don’t see something like that very often and this pretty much ran the same route that the Dunn dump did.”
“I believe the DEC has confirmed what we have known all along: that this project was mishandled by the city leaders and Planning Board,” he later added.
The bluntly worded DEC letter reviewed what the agency said were “improper determinations that the plant’s impact would be insignificant.”
Goertz noted that early estimates were that the plant would draw 15 truck trips per day. But a later engineering study predicted it could get as many as 170 truck trips per day, with many of the vehicles being semi-tractor trailers or garbage trucks.
Goertz said the city also underplayed worries that the plant, which would include a 25-foot-deep garbage pit, would penetrate a capped landfill underneath since it would be on the site of the city ’s long-demolished BASF chemical plant at 36 Riverside Ave.
Mayor Mooney, who leaves office at the end of the year, didn’t return a call. But Paul Goldman, the city ’s attorney, rebutted some of DEC’S criticism, saying the agency had ample time back in 2018 to contest the city ’s move to serve as the lead agency overseeing the project application but didn’t.
“They forfeited their chance to be the lead agency,” he said. Goldman, however, also noted that the letter makes it pretty clear that DEC is going to require an environmental study before granting the state permits that would be needed to move ahead.
“That letter from the DEC does not indicate that they are favorably disposed toward the application,” Goldman said.
The letter also prompted an environmental group, the Rensselaer Environmental Coalition, to call for Biohitech to drop its application.
“It is exactly at times like these when state authority provides the safety net that residents need against incomplete environmental reviews,” Andrea Smyth, a coalition member and city resident, said.
Biohitech envisions a $35 million facility that would convert municipal waste like tires, railroad ties and plastics into fuel that could be burned in cement plants or other such facilities.
It would process up to 50,000 tons of waste annually — which is close to the amount that now goes to the landfills in Albany and Colonie.
Biohitech did not return a call on Wednesday.
The S.A. Dunn facility and the proposed Biohitech site are about 2 miles apart.