LOCAL

Update: High Acres landfill gets state award

Steve Orr, @SOrr1

UPDATE Nov. 16, 2016

The High Acres landfill in Perinton was given a state "environmental excellence award" on Nov. 15 for being the first landfill in New York state to accept solid waste via rail.

"Transporting waste by train instead of truck reduces nearly 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. The High Acres management team designed a more efficient dump truck for waste-by-rail operations resulting in significant environmental benefits and setting a new industry standard," the state Department of Environmental Conservation said in announcing the award.

The DEC also lauded the landfill for its use of falcons to control nuisance birds and its use of methane collected from the landfill to generate electricity.

Below is our original story on High Acres and rail shipment of trash, published May 25, 2014.

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High Acres Landfill, which sprawls over nearly 1,000 acres in Perinton and Macedon, Wayne County, is poised to become the first landfill in New York state to accept shipments of trash via railroad.

Construction of a rail spur leading into the landfill's eastern section in Macedon is underway, and rail shipments of solid waste in closed containers are expected to begin next year. Initially, trains will deliver household waste from New York City, though other sources are possible.

High Acres, by volume the fifth-largest in the state at present, could see the amount of solid waste it accepts double or triple once rail service is in full use. It would be only the second landfill in the state to accept substantial amounts of municipal solid waste from New York City.

The landfill, owned by industry giant Waste Management Inc., is just north of the Erie Canal and the CSX freight railroad's main east-west tracks.

"Our goal is to take those tons that would otherwise come in on tractor-trailers and put that in intermodal (rail) containers, and really just change the transportation method," said Jeff Richardson, Waste Management's senior district manager in Rochester.

There could be as many as one train every weekday, each of about 20 cars, arriving at High Acres, he said.

How much truck traffic to High Acres will be reduced with the advent of rail delivery isn't yet known, though company officials say the number of trash trucks traveling east through Fairport and other parts of Perinton will not diminish for now.

While it has clear environmental pluses, the use of trains to haul trash often can be controversial. Those who live along rail lines where solid waste is transported sometimes complain about litter and odors, particularly if a train stops on the tracks or loaded cars are left on a siding.

More often, landfill opponents object to rail delivery because it can lead to the import of more trash and can prolong the life of the landfill. In Seneca County, citizen groups and local businesses have been fighting an attempt by the giant Seneca Meadows Landfill to install a rail spur, and a judge last month threw out an environmental review of the plan as inadequate.

In Macedon and neighboring Perinton, however, the planned rail spur has drawn almost no criticism, company and town officials say.

"We had people in Wayne County saying 'It's about time,' " said Richardson, who made presentations on the rail project to four government bodies in that county. "If anything, for years they've been tired of the truck traffic. The response has been very positive."

Macedon town Supervisor William Hammond agreed, saying "it's been through the Planning Board and the Town Board. I don't remember them having any real concern."

His counterpart in Perinton, Michael Barker, said while part of the rail spur is in Perinton, Waste Management and CSX needed no permits from his town and never made any public presentations there.

Barker said he only learned details of the work after a legal notice was published in March. He had a few constituent calls then, but nothing since. He said he expected complaints about the clearance of trees near the Erie Canal recreational path that is going on now, but has had none.

Ken Jentzen, a Perinton resident who was part of a citizens group that filed suit in 2007 to block a High Acres expansion, said he had heard nothing about rail shipments to the landfill. But after hearing the basics, he said he could see some benefits to rail — and some detriments.

"It'll be better for traffic. That would be an improvement," he said. "But if this makes it easier and cheaper for that landfill to get bigger ... it's something that people ought to be concerned about.

"Rather than transporting trash 370 miles from Queens to Perinton, it ought to be dealt with locally," he said. "We always make the point that the landfill is an immovable object. Once that trash accumulates over a period of 20 or 50 years, it's not going to go away."

The only landfill in New York that currently accepts a significant amount of solid waste from New York City is Seneca Meadows, which took in 667,000 tons last year that arrived by truck from Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

For reasons that don't seem entirely rational, waste from the nation's largest metropolis has generally been unwelcome at upstate landfills. Monroe County, for instance, pledged never to take Big Apple trash in order to win approval from residents and local political leaders for its Mill Seat landfill in Riga.

Richardson said New York City trash used to be trucked to High Acres, but those deliveries ended a few years ago for business reasons. They had no substantive complaints then, he said, and hope to avoid any this time.

"We're concerned with any perception issues that aren't accurate. Our goal would be to make (local) people aware of what it is — it's non-hazardous solid waste. It's no different from the trash that sits in their kitchen or their garage every day," he said.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation amended High Acres' landfill permit in October to allow rail service. In April, it issued two permits that CSX needed to finish the 1,400-foot rail spur leading from the main tracks and three 4,000-foot sidings.

Though the judge who heard the case Jentzen was involved in did not approve a major expansion of the High Acres site in Perinton, he did give the go-ahead to a smaller increase in the Perinton footprint and a new 138-acre fill area west of Wayneport Road in Macedon. The latter will be served by the rail spur.

Richardson said CSX has told him that it already transports 2,000 tons of waste a day on the main tracks that cross New York. Much of that is westbound, likely headed for landfills in other states.

Some of it, though, may be destined for the Allied Waste landfill in Niagara Falls, the only landfill in New York that now receives material via rail.

Allied Waste accepts rail shipments from parties in other states of construction and demolition debris and industrial waste, according to its 2013 annual report to the DEC. It also takes municipal solid waste, but that arrives via truck. It does not currently take ordinary household trash by rail, which is what would be new about the High Acres arrangement.

A railroad serving the Southern Tier, the Bath & Hammondsport, has applied to the DEC for a permit to open a waste transfer station in Erwin, Steuben County, DEC spokesman Peter Constantakes said. The railroad would bring in C&D debris, as it's known, and offload it to trucks.

Most of the material, which generally consists of inert concrete, wood, shingles and the like, would be hauled four miles to the Hakes C&D landfill in Campbell, Steuben County. That facility is operated by Casella Waste Solutions, which runs the Ontario County Landfill and several others in New York state.

A Covanta waste-to-energy incinerator in Niagara Falls has begun preparation to accept solid waste from New York City via rail, a project that residents in that area have protested.

Seneca Meadows, owned by a Canadian firm, Progressive Waste Solutions, intends to build a spur from the Finger Lakes Railway line that runs a half-mile south of the landfill in the town of Seneca Falls. The company has billed rail service as an environmentally friendly option.

But hundreds have signed a petition opposing it, and a business near the landfill that feared disruption filed suit alleging that the town improperly changed zoning to accommodate the rail service. A state Supreme Court judge ruled last month that the town had failed to conduct a proper environmental review before changing the zoning.

Despite the ruling, Progressive is still pursuing the rail connection, spokeswoman Marcy Neumire said last week.

Last year, High Acres took in 231,000 tons of municipal solid waste and another 276,000 tons of industrial waste, C&D debris, ash, sewage sludge and other non-hazardous material, according to the landfill's annual report to the DEC.

About half of the solid waste came from Monroe, Ontario and Wayne counties, all of it arriving by truck and buried in the older portion of the landfill located off Perinton Parkway. Roughly a third came from Albany County, and most of the remainder from the Hudson Valley.

There are no plans to transfer any of those shipments to rail, Richardson said. But material originating from more distance places such as Albany could be shifted from truck to rail, he said, depending on customer preferences and the availability of trackside facilities.

"We're in the process of evaluating all of that," he said. "Our goal would be to put as much volume on rail as we can."

While Waste Management did not provide a specific dollar amount for the rail construction, it did say it had committed "in excess of $10 million to advance green infrastructure at High Acres that will help reduce emissions and increase fuel efficiency."

Trash brought from nearby communities will remain on trucks, meaning Perinton residents won't see an immediate reduction in traffic. Were trash from Albany or the Hudson Valley to be shifted to rail, fewer tractor-trailers would rumble toward the landfill along Route 31 in Wayne County, spelling relief for residents there who frequently complain about the trucks.

CSX rail cars will transport household refuse from the New York City borough of Queens to High Acres, Richardson said. Waste Management recently signed a 20-year contract with the city to dispose of refuse at the upstate landfill and one the company owns in Virginia.

Containers would be moved from the rail cars by truck and emptied in the landfill, all within 24 hours.

Because this would be "new" trash for the landfill, introduction of service from New York City would not affect the volume of truck traffic.

While an average of nearly 1,400 tons of material a day was brought to High Acres for disposal last year, the facility's DEC permit allows it to accept up to 3,500 tons per day.

That leaves Waste Management with about 2,000 tons of unused daily capacity — and that happens to be the maximum amount the company will be able to receive, unload and bury each day once the new rail facility is done.

"Our goal would be to try to put as much on rail as we could, to take trucks off the road," Richardson said. "Five years out, if we were operating with 75 percent of our volume coming in by rail, that would be a good thing. It's a cleaner, greener method."

SORR@DemocratandChronicle.com

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