I Stand Corrected

Well, sort of, anyway. A few days ago, I suggested that there isn't a municipality in Ulster County that would welcome a new landfill. But there is at least one elected official who would like to see it happen in his town:

Town of Rochester Town Supervisor Carl Chipman has offered his community as a potential site for an Ulster County landfill.

Chipman made the statement during a public hearing on Tuesday about a proposed “flow control” law that would mandate all solid waste collected in the county be brought to a site run by the county’s Resource Recovery Agency.

Chipman told county legislators that he opposes flow control but recognizes it as an “economic necessity.”

He said the law, if approved, won’t solve all of the county’s solid waste problems.

“I believe we need a county landfill,” Chipman said. “I’m even willing to talk about it in the town of Rochester. Somebody’s got to take responsibility, and it’s time that we do.”

Good on Chipman for stepping up. Of course, he's just one guy, and I have a feeling that there will be quite a few residents who won't feel as sanguine about this as Chipman does. There will be voices raised at town meetings, no doubt.

And it isn't the landfill itself that's at issue. New landfills aren't the fetid open pits they once were, so it may be possible to find a site tucked away out in the western portion of the town.

But all the truck traffic this would generate is going to be a bigger problem. This means road infrastructure would have to be addressed (can the roads take the additional wear-and-tear?). Given this, proximity to Route 209 is likely to be important -- which means it would have to be located right in the middle of the more densely populated parts of the town. People are not going to want this thing to be situated where they can see it, no matter what Chipman says.

Let's see how the residents respond. My guess? It's going to be ugly.