Delaware County, Towns Say DEC's Waste Management Provisions Too Costly

HARPERSFIELD – The town of Harpersfield and Delaware County, along with many other municipalities around the state, are concerned over the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)'s proposed revisions to solid waste management in regard leachate runoff from landfill cells.

Therefore, the town, with other towns in the county expected to follow suit, adopted a resolution objecting to those changes saying they would be costly beyond what is affordable. 

The resolution reads that in Governor Hokul's 2026 State of the State  Address, she directed DEC to draft regulations requiring landfills to treat leachate for heavy metals, PFAA or forever chemicals and 1,4-dioxane at the source before discharging it to municipal wastewater plants.

DEC proposed revision to those regulations in July to implement the Governor's direction. This will involve 25 active/permitted Municipal Sold Waste landfills, with 19 of them owned by municipalities. 

In its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, DEC summarized the cost per facility from the treatment required by the proposed rules as follows: "Capital costs will vary depending, among other variables, on the treatment technology used and the volume of leachate to be treated...It is estimated that  capital costs could be between $3 million and $50 million. Annual operating costs will also be based on those same technology and amount of leachate to be treated and other variables that are estimated to cost between $1.5 million and $8 million per year"

According to the resolution, the county, using DEC's data, calculates compliance with this rule on an annual basis will result in at most a reduction of .0509 total pounds of combined PFOA and PFOs- resulting in an estimated annual treatment cost per pound of  $29,453,345.12.

The county's Department of Public Works submitted comments to the DEC in August and the county adopted a resolution objecting to the proposed rulemaking on several grounds.

The county used a FOIL request to receive DEC's data analysis of the fiscal impact the proposed rules would have on residents in Delaware County. The DEC must consider whether the proposed rules are economically feasible before it moves forward with adoption. The anticipated costs for the 25 landfills indicates they would incur nearly $3 million in debt service to construct or install  the necessary leachate treatment systems. When you add related operating costs it increases to nearly $6.8 million on 21,084 tons per year. The county would have to raise its tipping fee by $322.44/ton. 

The county has determined that DEC has not conducted the proper fiscal impact analysis required by law and the proposed rule is not economically or technologically feasible and should therefore be rejected.

The town  wants  it noted it agrees with the county and rejects the proposed revisions and will send its resolution to its federal and state legislative representatives.