Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

    Maybe you’ve heard of this definition of insanity.  If this was in the dictionary, you might find the logo of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation next to it.    

    The 1987 Hazardous Waste Management Act mandated the DEC to produce a statewide hazardous waste siting plan.  The plan’s objectives were to phase out landfilling of hazardous waste and to distribute hazardous waste management facilities across the state equitably to handle waste over the next two decades.

    In 1993, the DEC finally produced a draft siting plan.  It was torn to shreds because it did not comply with 1987 law, and a State Supreme Court Judge ordered the agency to do it over, do it right, and do it “with all due haste.”

    Ten years later, in 2003, after much pressure from me and the good people of Niagara County, the DEC produced another draft plan.  Why did we care so much about this siting plan being done?  Because Niagara County is home to the only commercial hazardous waste landfill in the entire northeastern United States, and all landfills eventually leak.  It’s also on land with a troubled legacy that is upgradient from the Great Lakes… and its owners are trying to expand it.  The 2003 draft siting plan turned out to be even worse than the 1993 version, and it has been in hiding since the explosions of public outrage in the Lew-Port High School Auditorium.

    Finally, this summer the DEC issued yet another draft hazardous waste siting plan that the agency calls the “Re-draft Draft” plan.  Once again, the DEC has failed.  Like with  the first and the second plans, we see through this third attempt over the past 21 years to fool the public with a plan than distorts and twists the original 1987 law to set the stage for a landfill expansion.

    So does the DEC really expect a different outcome when it has tried the same thing over and over again?  Is the agency insane?

    I don’t care what political party holds the governor’s office.  In 1993 the DEC was under the Democratic administration of Governor Mario Cuomo.  The 2003 draft plan came about during the years of Republican Governor George Pataki.  Now the 2008 “Re-draft Draft Plan” is under Democratic Governor David Paterson’s tenure.  Putting partisan labels aside, we can say a bad plan is a bad plan is a bad plan. 

    I want the original 1987 law complied with properly and hazardous waste landfills phased out.  That’s why I successfully sponsored a bill that became law in 2004 which stated that until the DEC complies with the 1987 law and developed a hazardous waste siting plan, no application for a new or expanded landfill can be considered as complete.

    Like you, I don’t want thousands of trucks to continue hauling hazardous waste right past our schools and home.  I don’t want the continued risk to public and environmental health that landfills pose.  The latest revelation that the DEC has been shipping Queensbury PCBs here below the radar screen makes this issue all the more important for our region.

    I will continue to fight as hard as I can to stop the dumping of hazardous waste in Western New York, in the heart of our beautiful county, in the midst of our good communities, and just upstream from the Great Lakes.  You can take part in this effort by attending public hearings on the latest incarnation of the draft siting plan on November 19 at the Niagara Falls Public Library and November 20 at Lewiston-Porter High School.

   *For more information on the "Re-draft Draft Plan," you can visit http://www.dec.ny.gov/environmentdec/45964.html.

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