SOURCE:
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/yaphank-waste-transfer-station-ba8lhezd
By Carl MacGowan and Mark - September 27, 2024
West Babylon trash hauler Winters Bros. is dropping plans for a proposed Yaphank waste transfer station project that was seen by local officials as critical to managing Long Island's future trash removal needs but drew opposition from local residents and others, a company spokesman told Newsday on Friday.
Winters Bros. vice president Will Flower said Brookhaven Rail, which owns the 228-acre site on Horseblock Road where the facility was planned to be built, has agreed to sell the site to Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development, which is developing a warehouse project on an adjoining parcel.
Selling the property effectively ends plans to build the transfer station, which had faced an uncertain approval process amid opposition and lawsuits aimed at blocking the project.
“Brookhaven Rail has made the decision not to pursue plans for the rail transfer station," Flower said. "We do believe rail is, and will continue to be, a very viable solution, both economically and environmentally, to the problem of solid waste.”
WHAT TO KNOW
Winters Bros. of West Babylon has canceled plans for a Yaphank waste transfer station that drew opposition from environmentalists and the state and Brookhaven NAACP.
The plant would have taken in construction and demolition debris and shipped it by rail to landfills off Long Island.
NAACP leaders and the environmental nonprofit Citizens Campaign for the Environment called the project's demise "a comprehensive victory."
A Brookhaven Rail spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Winters Bros. and Brookhaven Town officials have said previously the Yaphank station was critical to Long Island's future waste management needs as the town prepares to begin closing its landfill later this year.
The project required approvals from federal and state agencies and Brookhaven officials. The project was never formally submitted to town officials for approval, Flower and town officials said.
The state NAACP and Farmingdale environmental nonprofit Citizens Campaign for the Environment said Friday the project's demise is "a comprehensive victory," adding the deal to stop the project stemmed from negotiations between both groups and the developers.
Under the deal described in a statement released by NAACP and Citizens Campaign officials, NorthPoint Development agreed to buy out Winters Bros.’ interests in the property and to abandon the waste transfer plan.
The deal includes open space preservation easements for NAACP and the Citizens Campaign, and deed restrictions blocking future solid waste uses on the Winters Bros. site, the NAACP and Citizens Campaign officials said in the news release. They added that NorthPoint Development, which plans to build industrial buildings on the site, agreed to host job fairs in conjunction with the NAACP to fill positions at the new facility.
A NorthPoint official, Brian Stahl, declined to comment Friday.
Citizens Campaign and the NAACP opposed the station, saying it was not needed because they believed other transfer stations on Long Island would be enough to process construction waste after the landfill closes.
"This victory is sweet," Brookhaven NAACP president Georgette Grier-Key said in a statement, adding, "the fight for environmental justice, for good jobs for our community, for our fair share of state funding for our schools and more, continues.”
The NAACP and Citizens Campaign last year sued the town in state Supreme Court to block the project. A state judge threw out the lawsuit earlier this year.
The mammoth plant, which would have been one of the largest such facilities in the state, would have collected up to 2,000 tons a day of construction waste and shipped it by rail to landfills as far away as Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Proponents said it would have cut the number of trucks needed to haul construction trash off the Island.
Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico said the project's cancellation was "a loss for Long Island as a region and a missed opportunity.”
He added the demise of the project would not affect plans to close the landfill. The dump is set to stop accepting construction waste in December and close completely when it stops taking ash in 2028 from incinerators operated by Reworld, formerly called Covanta.
“The plans for the landfill will proceed as planned," he said. "But this potentially could mean higher prices for residential and commercial customers and taxpayers.”
Flower said the Winters Bros. plan failed in part because state lawmakers in recent years declined to approve the use of open space land for part of a rail spur that was to have served the facility.
Winters Bros. was purchased in July by industry giant WM, formerly Waste Management.
The spur was to be built on a three-acre section of a 68-acre conservation easement that runs through the Brookhaven Rail property, officials said previously. In exchange, the town would have received six acres that would be preserved as open space.
But the measure, known as a "park alienation" bill, never was approved amid heavy lobbying from environmentalists and the NAACP, officials said.
“I think it’s safe to say Brookhaven Rail did not see a pathway to move forward with the project and made the decision" to sell the land to NorthPoint Development, Flower said.
Citizens Campaign for the Environment executive director Adrienne Esposito said the nonprofit was “delighted with the outcome.”
“It’s really the best of both worlds. We will not have a transfer station, which would have added a lot of dust, noise and air pollution to the neighborhoods,” she said. “We heard the public’s cry for help and we answered them.”
She added: “We have to have a meaningful plan for solid waste. This project was problematic ... and they could not demonstrate a need for this large a facility."