Solid Waste

"State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos is quoted in "Dump catches state's eye" (March 25) that he became concerned about the giant landfill in Rensselaer, which he can see from his office window, after he saw a cloud of dust over the dump a few months ago. Seggos apparently never noticed the many thousands of trucks that drive through downtown Rensselaer each year to and from the dump. DEC has been ignoring evidence right under its nose for decades. Not until two years ago did DEC pretend to notice that the air in Albany's South End is dangerously polluted, particularly in the Ezra Prentice Homes neighborhood through which many hundreds of trucks pass daily. DEC pretends the Colonie landfill is not an environmental or health hazard despite immense evidence to the contrary including that it sits atop an unlined hazardous waste dump on the edge of the Mohawk River. Why is DEC ignoring requests made 18 months ago by the towns of Waterford and Halfmoon and others to conduct a formal adjudicatory hearing on the landfill expansion application? As the TU reported March 22, DEC is assisting Colonie with its application. DEC commissioners sometimes remind me of the Sgt. Schultz character on the 1960s television sitcom "Hogan's Heroes," who, when he saw the prisoners plotting their schemes, responded with "I see nothing" or "I know nothing.