Wake Up, Brookhaven: Seal the Ash-Trash Deal
The Newsday editorial on the Brookhaven Landfill from 1991. Credit: Newsday archives
If those responsible for the governance of the Town of Brookhaven muster up courage enough to peek out from under the covers in the next 24 hours or so, they can wave bye-bye to their last best hope for an economically feasible way of getting rid of solid waste.
Fed up with Brookhaven’s shilly-shallying, the Town of Hempstead set tomorrow as the deadline for coming to an agreement on a widely praised deal that would enable Brookhaven to burn some of its garbage in Hempstead’s incinerator in return for burying some of Hempstead’s incinerator ash in Brookhaven. If the response to the deadline is in keeping with Brookhaven’s tradition, town officials will do what they do best — nothing.
Long Island’s towns had seven years to get ready for December’s official demise of landfilling as a method of garbage disposal. Brookhaven dawdled for years and then briefly considered building a $350-million incinerator. But when opposition developed, the incinerator plan was dropped, and the town proposed to embark on a nonincineration program. This was (and is) partially an extrapolation on state-of-the-art alternatives — such as composting and massive recycling — and partially a pipe dream, such as the notion that the town would somehow be able to reduce the waste stream by 190 tons a day.
While this alternative disposal system, never before accomplished anywhere, was getting on line, the town proposed to burn some of its waste in the Hempstead incinerator, accepting ash in return. But the town’s vocal NIMBY community objected to that, and somehow the negotiations on what came to be known as the trash-for-ash deal began to falter.
If they expire completely tomorrow, Brookhaven will have nowhere to go with a great deal of garbage. The state could order the town landfill closed. It was being held open only to facilitate the ash-disposal agreement. If the landfill closes, Brookhaven’s taxpayers will probably have to pay to have the excess tonnage hauled off Long Island. If that happens, the town’s political establishment may never come out from under the covers.
