Dive Brief:
- CWM Chemical Services has run out of space for hazardous waste at its five-million-ton capacity landfill in New York. The company is awaiting news of whether a permit will be granted to dig a new one that would be about the same size as the existing site.
- CWM has been pushing for more than a decade for state permission to build a new landfill. For now, waste that would have gone to the end-of-life landfill is being diverted to a Waste Management-owned landfill in Emelle, AL, according to CWM spokesperson Lori A Caso.
- As the company awaits to hear if the proposed new landfill is a go, it continues operating a wastewater-treatment plant and the drum building where waste is held before it is transferred.
Dive Insight:
It may be some time before New York state residents and government officials know how their waste, previously diverted to the landfill, will be managed. The permit request for the new landfill has been stalled since late April, awaiting a judge’s decision on how to proceed with a hearing.
A siting board, composed of five state officials and three local residents, eventually will make recommendation on whether to move forward on the project. But the board and the DEC must agree that the site is needed, and it is questionable whether DEC will support the move. While the at-capacity site is the only licensed hazardous waste landfill in New York State, the DEC concluded in 2010 that New York does not need more hazardous waste landfill capacity.
The issue of hazardous waste at the state’s landfills has come up before, most recently following a report recommending that controversial fracking and drill waste, which were routinely accepted into its landfills, be deemed as hazardous.
