Well we won this round. The special meeting of Chautauqua County Legislature to discuss the Landfill issue Wednesday, May 12, 1999, resulted in a vote to continue the support ofour landfill. To know the background of this story read on.

We've been here before. Ever since the County Landfill opened almost thirty years ago there have been threats to close it because it was not meeting one goal or another. Mostly it's been a matter of making money. Periodically there are threats to close it down. Again that is the headline in the April 29th Post Journal. "Landfill's Future In Jeopardy". There is a need to build another cell and that will cost 8 million dollars, and somebody has to pay for it. Do you want to know why?

It's really quite simple. The people that operate the landfill measure success by how much money it makes. To the boneheads running the legislature that looks good on paper. Because the public here doesn't generate much waste, the landfill contracts with waste haulers to dump out of county trash here . The county has to compete with other landfills by charging as little as they can and make a profit. Of course these low margins means that there is an incentive to fill the landfill as quickly as possible to maximize profit. Once the landfill cells are filled and space gets tight there is a call to build more (at the public expense) so the landfill can go on making money.

Right now, it would cost the same $8 million to close the landfill as it would to build another cell. If our landfill closed, the people of the county would then have to pay costly dumping fees to some out of county facility. We would lose the local jobs at the landfill, and the local income that it generates. The county would still be responsible for maintaining and monitoring the closed landfill site for decades to come.

Back in 1995 there was much attention directed at the operation of the landfill when it was discovered that the County Executive "Atomic" Andy Goodell, had privately arranged a contract to bring Oswego County sludge into the landfill containing low level radioactive material. The source of the radioactive matter was Niagara Mohawk and New York State atomic power plant waste.

We and others in the public were outraged. Research was done, meetings held, and information distributed. After the public outcry the contract to import low level radioactive waste was terminated. If anyone could be blamed for originally encouraging importing the dangerous waste, it was the Chairman of the County Legislative Committee on the Environment, Republican Norm Herby of the xx District in Jamestown. He, more than anyone in responsibility, should have advocated the protection of the environment and the safety of the public. He failed to see the impact and danger of radioactive waste and continues to this day to advocate the perception that the landfill is a private business run by the county to maximize volume, minimize cost and focus on profit. The Gobbler called for his resignation in 1995.

As a result of the turmoil a committee was formed to redefine the mission of the County landfill. Two members of the public were included on the committee, myself and Vickie Kaiser. In researching the nature of the contracts we found many unsavory things the public didn't know. One of the most disturbing was a contract to accept all the processed medical waste of the state of Connecticut. This was handled by BFI through a subsidiary in Connecticut. [I once followed one of the trucks west along I 84 and Route 17. It was a plain white semi-tractor trailers trucks with the minimum legal disclaimers marked on them (Federal and state biohazard license numbers and warning symbols) and a tiny "Operated by BFI Medical Services" decal. No reason to call attention to itself].

In 1981, when it opened, the Ellery Landfill held the hope of being a progressive and valuable public resource that would protect the health and insure the welfare of the people of Chautauqua County long into the future. But that didn't last the century that was promised then. By the spring of 1985 it was announced that the legislature had written a new law that would allow the landfill to take out-of-county waste.

The idea was that earth, sawdust and other dry material from out-of-county would be beneficial to the operations at the landfill by helping to provide the required daily cover on the trash, as well as reducing operation cost by providing some revenue.

How long was it before this "beneficial" solid waste was to become part of the problem? Within three years the county was running out of landfill space. In 1988 it began banning nonhazardous material from our own county, like grass clippings, brush, manure and grape pumice.