ENVIRONMENT: Senator tells DEC to hold off on plan to move waste to Porter

Greater Niagara Newspapers

July 14, 2008 09:09 am

— Staff Reports
New York state Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, has asked the man in charge of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to reconsider his agency’s plan to ship 75,000 tons of toxic PCB waste from a cleanup site in Warren County to a hazardous waste landfill in the Town of Porter.
On Friday, Maziarz delivered a letter to DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis, encouraging his office to hold off on the waste removal plan until other
alternatives can be discussed.
“Let me be clear,” Maziarz wrote. “I have no interest in allowing any toxic waste from the Queensbury site to be imported into Niagara County and I plan on seeking every remedy possible to prevent it.”
According to the senator’s letter, the DEC initially solicited bids for contractors that would use thermal desorption — a process which isolates toxins using heat — to cleanup the former General Electric salvage yard in Queensbury in Warren County. Because the cost of the bids was determined to be too high, Maziarz said the DEC scrapped that plan, choosing instead to haul 1,500 truckloads of waste material across the state from Queensbury to the CWM Chemcial Services landfill in Porter.
In his letter, Maziarz said he was “appalled” to learn that the DEC decided upon a “less safe and less clean” plan simply because bids were too high.
“I urge you in the strongest sense possible to delay any further work or awarding of contracts until you and I have had the opportunity to discuss this issue and explore alternatives,” Maziarz wrote.