A plan proposed last year by the Ulster Country Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA) to open a new landfill in Ulster County quickly came to center on two sites in Wawarsing, which sparked resistance, even outrage in the township. Community members are opposed on several grounds, not least of which are the relative poverty of Wawarsing within the county and its many precious watersheds. At the county legislature meeting on Tuesday, April 15, a number of people spoke and added comments to the growing fire.

The topic came up once more because of a resolution offered by Craig Lopez, representing Wawarsing in the body, which would see the legislature formally oppose the establishment of a Wawarsing landfill, and “urge the exploration of alternative locations and waste management solutions.”

This resolution was voted down in the Energy, Environment and Sustainability Committee last month, rejected in a 5-2 vote. Lopez has since managed to get the legislature to vote on it anyway. The legislature voted to send the resolution back to committee, where it was defeated previously.

Before then, around a dozen people spoke to various aspects of the situation. One speaker at the legislature was Shabazz Jackson who talked about “zero waste” as the model to be pursued. He mentioned that Hurley intends to be a zero waste community.

Reuben Bouchard of Greenfield Park, close to the Dairyland site on Milk Road that is being considered for the landfill, suggested the age-old politics of landfills were still in play. “A vote to site the dump in Wawarsing,” he insinuated, “might ensure it won’t end up in their own district’s backyard.”

Bouchard called for courage from the legislators. UCRRA Board Chair Jim Gordon countered by posing that question in the opposite direction.

Gordon called for a “no” vote on the resolution, and went into the mandates and actions required of UCRRA, which he said was examining many aspects of the waste treatment issue. He said the landfill was a last resort, and that other options should be employed to reduce the waste stream as much as possible. The CEO of the UCRRA State Benefit Corporation, Marc Rider was absent, on vacation.

Joe Maloney, legislator for Saugerties and a longtime critic of UCRRA said that the legislature should not add this burden to the southern part of the county.

Poppy Cannon-Reese, who has led the resistance to the landfill in the Dairyland corner of Wawarsing, also spoke once more on the topic.

“UCRRA,” she said, “was created around 40 years ago because nobody wants a landfill in their neighborhood and you, the legislators, didn’t want to be the bad guy and anger your constituents. Well, we are angry.”

Cannon-Reese also looked skeptically at the survey that pinpointed on the two sites in Wawarsing, “None of the other sites in Ulster County got near the point of testing,” she said, “and UCRRA wants to start testing in June. Once that ball is rolling, we fear there is no stopping them from moving their landfill into our neighborhood.”

She also referenced Seneca Meadows, the giant landfill in Waterloo that currently takes the county’s waste, and whose potential closure brought a local landfill back on the table. “Neighbors of Seneca Meadows cite the ‘incessant odor of landfill gas and decomposing garbage.’”

Cannon-Reese also asked “Who is UCRRA accountable to?”

Longstanding environmental advocate Manna Jo Greene of Rosendale requested that the resolution be sent back to committee. She has suggested that environmental nonprofit Hudsonia be hired to undertake another survey of the county.

Kevin Roberts, legislative minority leader, suggested that the legislature should let the UCRRA contract lapse and then send county employees in to run things. This, of course, would force the County Executive and administration to handle a hot potato that nobody wants to hold.

The resolution now goes back to committee. The next event in this saga will be the Energy, Environment and Sustainability Committee meeting on May 6, when the resolution will be introduced again. Following that, on May 8, will be the next meeting of the UCRRA board.

As Ulster County wrestles over the landfill issue, they have put out feelers for alternatives, such as that offered by Taylor Recycling in Montgomery. They have been working on a “biomass gasification” concept for several years. That would turn carbon-based waste into gas with superheated steam, creating greener energy.

The waste issue will have to be dealt with one way or another. Like the resolution to block one, a landfill seems destined to come once again before the county legislature.