Effort to block Finger Lakes trash incinerator stalled in Albany

Jon Campbell
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
A Rochester company said its incinerator in Seneca County would look like this.

ALBANY - A push to block a proposed trash incinerator in the Finger Lakes region came up short this week at the state Capitol, where the state Assembly adjourned for the year without taking up the measure.

The state Senate unanimously passed a bill earlier this month that would prohibit the state from approving any trash incinerators near the Finger Lakes if a landfill or another waste-management facility were within 50 miles.

The bill would have applied to one facility in particular: A $365 million trash-to-energy facility proposed for a 48-acre portion of the former Seneca Army Depot in Romulus, Seneca County.

But a last-minute flurry of phone calls and letters from Finger Lakes winery and business owners wasn't enough to get the bill a vote in the Assembly, which adjourned late Wednesday night without taking it up.

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Opponents of the plant, who made multiple trips to the Capitol this year to push for the bill, were disappointed with the end result, laying the blame with Assembly leadership.

They expressed hope that the Legislature would return before the end of 2018 to deal with several issues left outstanding, including a soon-to-expire law allowing speed cameras in New York City school zones.

“We remain strong, we will persevere, and we are confident that we will ultimately kill this devastating project here in the Finger Lakes," said Joseph Campbell, president of the Seneca Lake Guardian environmental organization. "We urge the Assembly to pass the bill when they return later in the year."

The incinerator facility is proposed by a Rochester-based company known as Circular EnerG, while the land is owned by a company controlled by Rochester developer David Flaum.

The company is seeking state approval for the facility through a rarely used 2011 law that allows a state siting board composed of five state agency heads and two town residents to decide whether to approve a new power plant.

In a statement, Circular EnerG attorney Alan Knauf said the Assembly "acted appropriately" by "declining to pander to NIMBYs and junk science."

"This technology is the best option for trash, and results in huge environmental benefits compared to landfills, including lower emissions of greenhouse gasses, and no odors or emissions of harmful levels of toxic air pollutants," Knauf said.

Opponents of the plant, meanwhile, honed in on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, and Majority Leader Joseph Morelle, D-Irondequoit, Monroe County, accusing them of failing to protect the Finger Lakes region.

Not long before the Assembly adjourned Wednesday, Morelle said he was unsure whether the bill would get a vote, but said he was personally supportive of it. But it ultimately never came to the floor.

"It’s something I support," Morelle said.

Sen. Pam Helming, R-Canandaigua, Ontario County, sponsored the bill in the Senate and criticized the Assembly for not bringing it to the floor.

"This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue," Helming said in a statement. "Rather, this is a matter of protecting the quality of life for local citizens and visitors alike and preserving our beautiful lakes, farmland and natural scenery."

JCampbell1@Gannett.com

Jon Campbell is a correspondent with USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau.