On December 4, 1995, Essex County filed with the Department's Region 5 Division of Regulatory Services an application to modify its existing solid waste management facility permit to increase the daily tonnage of solid waste received at the Essex County Landfill located off U.S. Route 9 in the Town of Lewis, Essex County. The requested permit modification would increase the maximum daily tonnage of waste allowed to be received at the landfill from 95 tons per day to 500 tons per day.

When the state closed the Essex County Landfill, it offered the county an annual payment not to run one.

"What helps us, too, is we do get that $300,000 subsidy from the state toward the landfill and transfer-station costs," Palmer said.

The county spent $7 million in 1991 to build a landfill in Lewis and in 1995 contracted with Serkil to run the facility.

Problems arose when Serkil began bringing in outside trash, including solid waste from the City of Troy.

An outcry from environmental groups reported in a New York Times article prompted then-Gov. George Pataki to promise there would be no municipal landfills in the Adirondack Park.

Pataki got the county funding to pay off the landfill, which was closed in 1998, and to subsidize Essex County's garbage disposal.

After the landfill closed, the county contracted with Serkil to transport trash to other sites, then shifted to Franklin County when a better price was offered.