ACAL News

Recent Documents...

News Updates...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – January 2, 2006

AVA, NY -  An audit report released in December 2005 by the New York State Comptroller’s Office entitled Oneida Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority Estimated Disposal Costs for a Proposed Regional Landfill Report of Examination, April 21, 2004 – June 30, 2005 has answered the question:  Were cost estimates used to assess the economic benefits of the proposed regional landfill project based on complete, objective and verifiable information and analysis?

According to the Comptroller’s report, the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority (OHSWA) numbers make sense.  But what the report does not identify in its 33-page document is whether or not constructing a landfill in the rural town of Ava is more cost efficient than transporting Oneida-Herkimer garbage to the Development Authority of the North Country (DANC) landfill in Rodman, NY – a landfill looking for garbage.

In August 2004, DANC offered to take Oneida and Herkimer County garbage for 50 years with a proposed tipping fee of $28 per ton; a $4 per ton savings when compared to OHSWA's $32 per ton projection for their new landfill in Ava.  When OHSWA Executive Director Hans Arnold refused to consider the offer, Assemblymen David Townsend and Daryl Aubertine requested the OHSWA audit for the purpose of evaluating the Rodman alternative versus constructing a new landfill in Ava, a process which has taken OHSWA over 12 years to complete due to strong opposition. 

Aside from the fact that the audit did not perform the requested financial comparison and evaluation, OHSWA and local news media are propagating misleading statements to the public.

A December 29, 2005 Utica Observer-Dispatch article stated that “Solid Waste Authority Executive Director Hans Arnold said the audit confirmed what he had been saying all along:  The new landfill would save county taxpayers money.”

According to OHSWA Executive Hans Arnold, “The Authority receives no funds from the counties.”  This statement can be found on the OHSWA website and has been verified by Mr. Eugene Camp at the NYS Comptroller’s office.

The new question is:  Who benefits from the cost savings of $4.2 million per year? The audit report does not identify the beneficiary.

The Observer-Dispatch article also incorrectly identified the cost of the landfill at $29.3, when if fact, the audit shows the adjusted estimate to be $32.9 million. With an additional cost of $3.6 million to construct a controversial landfill in Ava, where is the savings?

Another local media source, WKTV News Channel 2 in Utica, reported that the comptroller’s audit agreed with OHSWA:  “The landfill is a must [and] will save taxpayers $4 million per year”.  Executive Director Hans Arnold was filmed stating, “This is a pay off.   [The landfill] is “environmentally superior and is going to cost us less”.

Arnold’s so-called “environmentally superior” landfill construction violated their New York State Department of Environmental Conservation permit so often in 2005, that OHSWA was issued a notice of violation in early September by the NYSDEC for the repeated contamination of Moose Creek, a federally protected trout spawning stream. 

From nearly 100 possible landfill sites available in Oneida and Herkimer counties (many of which were volunteered by private owners), OHSWA chose the wettest location, with the average snowfall amount of 215 inches per year (as reported by the Jackson Hill Weather Station, Boonville, NY).  In addition to high levels of annual precipitation, the Ava landfill site is also located within the Black River Basin, and is in close proximity to an aquifer and hundreds of acres of State and Federal wetlands (many of which have already been destroyed through wetland mitigation).

Despite misleading information and statements made by OHSWA for over 12 years, Adirondack Communities Advisory League (ACAL) has worked diligently to keep the local communities, town officials and media informed of the facts regarding the 860-acre landfill.

Since ACAL’s mission is to preserve and protect the air, water, land and wildlife in the Northern Oneida, Southern Lewis County region of the Tug Hill Plateau, ACAL urges media to refrain from presenting inaccurate and/or incomplete information regarding the landfill being forced into the small rural community of Ava.

Although the audit reports local communities do not wish to negotiate with OHSWA for host community compensation, what it doesn’t say is that the Town of Ava has adamantly opposed the siting and construction of this landfill for 13 years.  Where other communities throughout the State can stop landfills from being constructed in their towns, Ava has been stripped of the right to protect itself and its citizens have been denied their civil liberties.  New York State appointed Authorities supersede local town laws, have been granted the power of eminent domain, and are only held accountable by the laws that created them.  

The Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority has abused and manipulated their power to force a landfill into a poor, helpless community who does not want their money to host an environmental disaster.  This is not freedom.  This is not justice.  This is a disgrace - to our State, to our Country, and to the Indigenous Peoples who once called this land sacred.