Democracy In Albany

Garbage as a revenue stream may seem unconventional, but realistically the city of Albany can't live without it.  [That's right.  Mr. Opinion Column writer starts off by saying, I will only be considering one option here.  And yes, that option is ... the status quo.  Such insight!]

Between $13 million and $15 million a year in tipping fees and related revenues support the city's strapped finances, the price paid for bringing to the Rapp Road landfill waste generated by 220,000 Capital Region residents.  [DIA has got these numbers covered, check out his previous posts.]  Besides Albany's own garbage going there, 11 surrounding communities rely on that landfill.

So the prospect of losing that revenue stream if that landfill is closed is unthinkable.  [Other options?  Who needs 'em!]  Not only would the city go into economic crisis because of the lost revenue, but there also would be the added expense to city residents of shipping the garbage elsewhere.  [Again, DIA has covered the numbers.]  In a city watching its middle class slip away, this would be one more reason for them to leave.  [I can't tell you how many middle class residents have said to me, "If our city's proud garbage operation isn't making money, I am out of here!"  All the time, I hear that.  I wish you all would stop, frankly.]

Yet that is the specter raised by an unfortunate and unexpected May letter from the state Department of Environmental Conservation concerning the city's ongoing application process for a 15-acre landfill extension.

A process Bill Bruce, the city's former Department of General Services commissioner and now a consultant in the matter [Now there is a source for you - a guy who is making money on the garbage operations!  Huh, I wonder what he'll say ...], thought was working smoothly [Working smoothly!  Who would have thought the consultant would say something like that?] toward the desired goal of approval for what is called a solid waste management plan modification.  The landfill would give Albany another six or seven years to solve the riddle [Riddle?  What? Riddle?  You mean, a municipality making a responsible plan for its waste? That riddle?] of where next. The city thought it had solved future garbage problems with plans for a big, new landfill on what then seemed appropriate land in the town of Coeymans. But that plan has gotten strong local resistance and a belated thumbs down from the DEC over what later were deemed wetlands.  [Hey, LeBrun.  Was it a belated thumbs down, or was it a premature purchase by the city?  How about looking at it from the other angle?  Also, I don't know that the DEC has ruled yet on Coeymans.  The Army Corps of Engineers stated that the land is wetlands.  But don't sweat it - it was only in your own paper.]  It looks less and less doable as time goes on.

At this point, the short of it is that Albany has no long-term alternative for Rapp Road, not even a prospect. That has to change, obviously.  [That's why they pay him the big bucks, folks!]

But the short-term alternative of losing Rapp Road in 18 months because an extension is denied is simply unacceptable. An entire house of cards called Albany city finances would come fluttering down.  [This would be a good place to criticize the city for setting up its finances this way, or for suggesting that it's better to change the city's finances sooner rather than later.  * crickets *  Um, Mr. LeBrun?  Never mind.]

The letter in question from Ed Dassatti, who heads the DEC's Division of Solid and Hazardous Materials, termed the city's new waste disposal plan incorporating the landfill extension "deficient." In essence, it suggested the city isn't acting in good faith to meet goals for recycling and waste stream reduction. Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings was taken aback. This is serious stuff for his administration. No one wants to calculate what residents would have to come up with in tax revenues to compensate.

Bill Bruce was nonplussed as well. He thought issues raised by the DEC and others, the Pine Bush Commission, were being addressed and progress was being made.  [Yeah, I think it's time to ask for a refund from Mr. Bruce for those consultant dollars.]  The Pine Bush, for example, would undergo $15 million in habitat restoration from the landfill revenue stream, if the extension is approved.

Maybe this is just the DEC's way of getting the city's attention, in terms of preparing good documentation for the landfill extension application, and a long-term waste management plan that doesn't include Rapp Road.

Those from the city who have poured over the critical letter, including Bill Bruce, say the city can and will meet any of the expectations raised by Dassatti.  [Then they bought LeBrun another drink.]

Strangely, after such a provocative letter, a meeting between the city and Dassatti's staff office this week was again collegial, cordial and productive, Bruce says.

So it seems all is not lost. The city should take the implied criticism to heart and carefully, diligently, go forward.  [Wait.  What?  Forward where?  With the Coeymans plan that has pretty much been denied?  Or with the Pine Bush plan that has pretty much been denied?  Forward!]  Regardless, we are surely witnessing perilous progress [What??  Seriously - what?] for something that should have been dealt with long before this. Maybe that's the frustration the DEC is expressing.

Rapp Road [LeBrun will not give you malcontents and complainers out there the satisfaction of calling it the Pine Bush, so stuff it!], for all its value as a revenue source, has been nothing but trouble for the city in recent years. As it has filled, opposition has grown to expanding it in a variety of directions, until the only direction left -- to the east -- also happens to be the most expensive to build out. For the last couple of years, the foul odor from the Rapp Road landfill during the heat of summer was enough to tip over a turtle.

Millions of dollars later, the city has solved the odor problem by re-engineering the cover and venting system. Complaints from despairing local residents are down to zero.  [LeBrun thought it would be best to wait until the closing paragraphs to discuss the landfill itself, as opposed to approvals and finances.  Interesting, that.]

Still, Rapp Road's time is running out, even odor free. Eighteen months is too short a time for the city to find another landfill, but I'm not sure without a little incentive like it just got from the DEC, that seven years would be any better.  [Strong finish!  We better hurry, continuing on our current course.  Or something.]