As Landfills Close in
Big Cities, Garbage Travels Farther
July 12, 2005 — By David B. Caruso, Associated Press
NEW YORK — The trains that rumble
from the Harlem River rail yard in the South Bronx are sealed tight, but
there is no mistaking what lies inside them.
The stench gives it away. The trains, some a mile long, are filled with
garbage.
The railcars are part of an armada that performs a nearly constant
exodus of waste from the nation's largest city. Each day, trains and
trucks carry 50,000 tons of trash from New York to huge landfills and
incinerators in New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and South
Carolina.
Waste management experts say these types of long hauls have become the
norm for big cities as homegrown landfills fill up and close. In 2003,
nearly a quarter of all municipal trash in the United States crossed
state lines for disposal, according to the Congressional Research
Service. Ten states imported at least 1 million tons of trash that year,
up from only two states in 2001.
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now pushing a proposal to extend
his city's trash hauls even farther, putting garbage on barges that
could be shipped up and down the East Coast. The plan is still likely
years away from fruition, but it is already fueling a fresh round of
debate in places that could be potential destinations.
At issue for many importing states is the smell and the threat to the
environment if the garbage is handled improperly -- reasons that more
urban trash is winding up in rural communities where political
resistance is likely to be minimal.
For instance, New York transports more than 1,300 tons of garbage each
day to Fox Township, Pa., located in hilly hunting country 130 miles
northeast of Pittsburgh.
Michael Keller, a township supervisor, said living near the landfill
isn't that bad because it's hard to smell or see it from the street. But
he can't shake the worries that the landfill's protective liners won't
hold up forever.
"My concern is that 50, 60 or 70 years from now, they'll be saying,
'What were those guys thinking, allowing something like this to be built
in this community?'" he said.
New York's new disposal plan is also being closely watched in Virginia,
which imported 7.8 million tons of garbage last year, up 67 percent from
1997, according to state figures. The issue has been contentious since
laws passed by legislators in the late 1990s seeking to slow the
importation of trash were struck down by the courts.
"It's easy to get Virginians to say, 'We don't want Yankee trash,'" said
Michael Town, director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club.
But officials in the Portsmouth area are considering a proposal by a
company called American Ref-Fuel to build a port that could receive up
to 2,500 tons of waste a day from New York. A fee of between $1 and
$1.25 would be paid for every ton brought in, generating $1 million per
year, plus as much as $7 million more if enough of the garbage went to
an existing incinerator.
"The way we figure it, waste is coming here anyway," said John Hadfield,
executive director of the Southeastern Public Service Authority. "Maybe
we can make a silk purse out of this sow's ear."
A similar flow of cash has certainly helped places like Fox Township.
"We're rich," Keller said, noting the township has bought new police
cars and fire trucks with trash tipping fees. "We have less than 4,000
people living here, and we have millions of dollars in the bank."
Despite the concerns of environmentalists, the risks for these
communities are also few, said Mickey Flood, chief executive and founder
of IESI Corp., a Fort Worth, Texas company that owns landfills
throughout the eastern part of the country.
Standard landfills don't accept hazardous materials, although keeping
every hypodermic needle or can of oil out continues to be a challenge.
Waste is also transported in sealed containers that are designed to be
leak-proof. All water that touches garbage is required to be treated for
pollutants, Flood said.
"Landfills in the United States are not environmental issues," he said.
"They are strictly political."
Still, problems occasionally arise.
In December 2003, two schools near a landfill in northeastern
Pennsylvania temporarily shut down when an overwhelming stink made it
impossible for students to concentrate in class. Investigators blamed
the stench on decaying gypsum board and made adjustments to a system
that extracts vapors from the trash and burns them off.
"Transporting all of this garbage so far away means that the people that
generate it don't have to deal with its consequences," Town said. "And
if that's the case, where is their incentive to create less of it?"
Source: Associated Press |