The
Blimp FliesThe
Blimp FliesWith plans to close Fresh Kills landfill leaving NYC without any city landfill, Waste Management (WMI) is now attempting to expand its Albion, NY landfill into a mammoth receptacle to assist in receiving the mountains of NYC daily waste. But Albion folks through their citizen body SPOC are fighting back. They launched a blimp to dramatize the height to which the landfill will reach. They have had initial success with the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in stopping the WMI landfill expansion proposal. On what basis? On the corrupt, law breaking tradition of WMI which has gone on for twenty years. WMI has been fined over 200 million dollars in environmental and crooked dealings in its landfills. In addition WMI has so upset its stockholders that it is now issuing stock to pay for the millions in liabilities to settle the suits.
Albion, located several hundred miles from New York City, stands half way between Rochester and Buffalo on the old Erie Canal. In fact the canal will be in danger of toxic landfill leachate and other pollution from trash and garbage trucks should the WMI landfill be permitted. Nevertheless, the state controlled canal commission has withdrawn its opposition. But the 6,000 people of Albion have gained a hearing on the record of compliance of Waste Management during the last ten years - a decision of the ALJ. The record lists all the rulings against WMI in recent years nationally and was submitted on February 22, 2000.
The battle started in the courts with Albion finally running out of money in defense of their decision to reject the expansion. As typical of WMI, they sue the daylights out of everyone and drive them into the ground with a promised bribery of "user fee payments" to buy off the opposition.* The citizens did not stop their resistance. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), in the pocket of WMI and other business, called a conference where SPOC provided strong testimony through local government and even gained recognition by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) as a bona fide party in the hearings. The blimp action riled up the citizenry so that 300 came to the conference. The conference has continued with the ALJ issuing a ruling questioning the "fitness" of Waste Management to carry out business in Albion. Eventually the ALJ will make a decision on whether to approve the landfill expansion which can by overturned by the DEC Commissioner! How a judge can be overturned by a politcally-appointed bureaucrat suggests corruption of our system. But if the citizens lose they can sue in the courts. The Albion Town Board has yet to approve the WMX expansion, only to give the application "fair review.".
*A
knowledgeable lawyer told us that WMI had every environmental lawyer in
Ohio under retainer. With this kind of legal orientation, the WMI court
challenge of Albion is similar to Dayton's. WMI uses the courts to wear
out local government opposition and to give politicians an excuse for approving
WMI's desires. Dayton approved WMI's proposal with $26 million payment
promises, but the Mayor, nevertheless, was voted out of office and the
city approved a charter change requiring all future landfill decisions
be voted on by the people. The citizens threw out the Mayor even though
he claimed that the Judge (who never ruled) forced the city council to
approve the landfill. As in Dayton WMI regularly legally bribes local governing
bodies with "user fees" which often amount to $1-2 million per
year.