A contested 53-acre expansion to the Chautauqua County Landfill has been given the green light by the Chautauqua County Supreme Court. On Monday, the court ruled in favor of the so-called “phase 4” expansion to the landfill, as requested by the county and approved by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
County Executive Vince Horrigan released a statement Friday regarding the court’s decision. “Having received the decision of the New York State Supreme Court, County of Chautauqua, on the matter of the Chautauqua County Landfill phase 4 expansion, I am pleased to see that the court has ruled in favor of Chautauqua County,” Horrigan said. “Our professionally managed and environmentally sound landfill operation benefits every taxpayer in the county while maintaining low tipping fees to support our businesses and homeowners. The expansion project will now proceed which will extend the life of the landfill for 20 years while remaining well within the existing county-owned property boundaries. There will be no change in the permitted waste volume.”
The county landfill is located in a rural, northeastern part of Ellery, and has less than five years of capacity left, according to Pantelis K. Panteli, county landfill manager. Without an expansion, he said, the landfill, which for years has provided regional customers with low-cost solid waste disposal, will essentially cease to exist. Ellery officials, however, along with a number of residents, believe such an expansion will increase the amount of traffic, noise, litter and odor in the area.
In February, Ellery officials brought a lawsuit against the county and the DEC, claiming the latter failed to follow appropriate guidelines before issuing permits to the county, specifically in regard to environmental impacts.
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