Hudson Falls residents urge: Shut the trash burn plant

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

Residents expressed outrage about the waste incinerator at 93 River Street, Hudson Falls, in a meeting that ran nearly three hours at the Kingsbury Volunteer Hose Company on April 16.

The meeting was required as Win Waste Hudson Falls seeks to renew a Title V air permit through the Department of Environmental Conservation.

“You guys are just awful,” said Andrea Kirby, who lives next to the incinerator formerly known as Wheelabrator.

“I don’t care how you’re all patting yourselves on the back to make yourselves look good. I know how that works, and it’s not working for me.”

She brandished plastic bags of grime that she said she’d wiped from her car and mailbox and that that she said came from the incinerator.

“I breathe this with my grandson in my yard,” she said. “Your incinerator is doing this to my house. You are a dirty mess. You are the biggest polluter in this area. You guys are loud. You’re polluting us. You’re killing us with all your toxins.”

She read aloud a letter from her friend and neighbor Rosemary Madonna, who called the facility “horrendous” and “horrific.”

“Our neighborhood used to be nice, close-knit, clean. We enjoyed many outdoor activities with our family and friends. That certainly doesn’t, and cannot, happen any longer, for many,” Ms. Madonna wrote.

“I am a person who loves to be working out in my yard. I cringe most of the time to go out now, as I pretty much can guarantee an unpleasant odor.”

Victoria Clark of Moreau said, “This type of incinerator has a shelf life of approximately 26 years, and Wheelabrator is now in its 33rd year. It spews a toxic mix of sewage and industrial sludge daily, including a forever chemical, PFAS, poisoning the air of its surrounding communities that currently suffer some of the highest cancer rates in our country.”

“Many of its neighbors have complained for several years that the stench and air quality is so poor that they are not even able to enjoy being outdoors in their own backyards during the warm summer months,” she said. “This is an affront to these residents who pay property taxes.”

Ms. Clark maintained, “Continuing to operate this facility is unnecessary, as there is a nearby alternative disposal site for this trash — the Green Ridge Landfill in Northumberland.”

A woman who said she lives next to the incinerator said, “I’m sick all the time. I get bit by rats every time I go home. I’m not safe at all.”

“This is not funny,” she said. “I live right next door to this chemical stuff…My mother died of cancer from this crap. I lost a lot of family from cancer. I don’t want to die. I’m still young, I’m only 57 years old…I have family back home who are worried about me because I tell them I’m sick all of the time…Somebody needs to stop this today.”

A speaker who gave a North Oak Street address said, “I am against the DEC renewing any of your permits. My preference would be that the trash plant gets closed down…I think we’ve taken on enough of the emissions from this plant as a small village. It’s time for someone else to pick up and deal with this. We’ve done our part over and over again.”

Shannon Leah said, “I have been a victim of bullying in this community because of your facility. It has affected my work. It has become personal, where I can’t walk into a place to have a drink without being accosted by people from your facility.”

She mimicked them, “Please don’t shut us down, Shannon. We’re great. Come visit, do all these things.”

Ms. Leah said, “We don’t want people’s jobs to go away, but when the alternative is children dying, we have to understand that there is a balance.”

The plant has 35 full-time employees.

Ms. Leah said, “35 jobs; it sucks. I understand that, but when you look at this disadvantaged community and you look at what this trash plant has done to us over the last 30 years, it far outweighs that impact.”

“We know what greenwashing is,” she said. “We know that you’re trying to make this look good for us, because you want to keep your jobs.”

A commenter near the end of the meeting said, “We haven’t heard one positive comment from the crowd. The house was packed and there were no fans. I think that probably speaks a little bit about the reputation of the company. And I would think that might make those of you who work there think twice about your decision to work there.”

Joe Wagner of Glens Falls said, “Sorry about your jobs, but this thing is not good for the region. We can live without the tax revenues.”

The NYSDEC is expected to hold its own public hearing in the future on WIN Waste’s air permit renewal.

WIN Waste: We meet NYS & US standards; EPA prefers what we do; turning trash into electricity

WIN Waste representatives at the April 16 public input meeting said the new air permit it is seeking would reduce the facility’s potential NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions by 20%, lower than the current EPA limit.

An information packet said the plant converts more than 400 tons of post-recycled waste into renewable energy “through a highly efficient combustion process that meets strict state and federal standards….

“By recovering energy from post-recycled trash, Wheelabrator diverts all those tons of waste from landfills, where they would otherwise decompose, releasing methane, the greenhouse gas that has a global warming potential more than 84 times that of carbon dioxide in its first 20 years.”

WIN Waste said waste-to-energy is the EPA’s preferred method for end-disposal.

It said the Hudson Falls facility each year converts 148,000 tons of post-recycled waste into enough electricity to power the equivalent of 6,000+ homes for a year; recovers and recycles 1,700 tons of metals from the waste stream; reduces fossil fuel use by eliminating the need for 124,000 barrels of oil; and eliminates thousands of tractor trailer trips to and from landfills, “thereby reducing traffic-related air pollution and preventing unnecessary wear and tear on highway infrastructure.”

Last year, the packet said, WIN Waste Innovations earned a five-star rating — the highest possible — from the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark, “the worldwide leader in environmental, social, and governance performance assessment.”

It said, “Only 20% of GRESB-rated entities receive a five-star rating.”

WIN Waste also touted its Occupational Safety and Health Administration “Star” worksite status, “the highest safety rating OSHA bestows, and fewer than one percent of worksites in the United States achieve the designation,” it said. — Ben Westcott

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