The Seneca Falls City Council voted unanimously last night to delay until December a decision on whether to grant Seneca Meadows Inc. a local permit after several citizens complained about “horrible” odors from the landfill.

The board previously postponed consideration of the permit application in January, February, March and April in response to protests about odors so strong they could violate an agreement between the host community and the landfill, which borders the city of Waterloo.

“On Monday… we woke up to the awful stench of the dump,” Heather Bonetti, a teaching assistant at Waterloo Middle School, told the city council Tuesday. “I couldn’t even light enough candles… Happy Labor Day, last day of summer before I have to go back to school.”

Valerie Sandlas, co-plaintiff in the lawsuit against Seneca Meadows that included Bonetti, the Seneca Lake Guardian and others, said three Waterloo schools are within a one-mile radius of the landfill, and three Seneca Falls schools are within a two-mile radius.

“These are our neighbors’ children,” Sandlas told the board. “It’s time to protect the health and environment of Seneca County, especially the children of Seneca Falls and Waterloo.”

Because Seneca Meadows has a state permit to operate until 2025, it was able to operate for many months without a local permit.

SMI has filed a state permit renewal application through 2040. The application calls for a major expansion — known as the Valley Fill Project — above the inactive Tantalo Hazardous Waste Landfill at the site. The plan is to raise the landfill’s elevation by 70 feet.

In a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) filed with its extension and expansion application, SMI said it will seek permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the cities of Seneca Falls and Waterloo.

Last night, the Seneca Falls City Council postponed a motion to approve the SMI local permit without discussion after about a dozen speakers complained about landfill odors. No one spoke in favor of granting the permit.

Several said the landfill’s formal procedure for recording complaints was ineffective because landfill officials routinely failed to confirm that any odor had been detected. Others said landfill officials had failed to turn up when asked to check odor reports.

Steve Churchill, a former Seneca Falls City Council member who lives two miles east of Seneca Meadows, said the odors are especially intense at night.

“When the windows are open, the gas not only gets into the house, but it wakes you up,” Churchill told the board. “Where I live, it’s like they release it at night… I don’t usually smell it too much during the day. But at night, I definitely do.”

Churchill said the landfill promised in 2017 that odor control would be a “top priority.” The initiative was in response to a wave of odor complaints that followed an emergency shutdown of the landfill’s gas collection system, he said.

“What have they done? Nothing,” he said. “Therefore, this (local) permit certainly cannot be approved.”

Mark Pitifer, an employee at Waterloo Container, said that on some days the odors inside his company’s building, located just across State Road 414 from the landfill, were so intense they made employees feel nauseous.

Pitifer said his company’s owner paid more than $10,000 to conduct scientific measurements of hydrogen sulfide gas — a common product in landfills — outside their building between July 24 and Aug. 25.

He said the results confirmed the company’s long-standing complaints about the smell of rotten eggs, which often causes headaches.

Pitifer cited the World Health Organization’s recommendation that hydrogen sulphide (H2S) concentrations should not exceed 5 parts per billion to avoid “significant” odor complaints.

Dozens of readings outside the Waterloo Container showed H2S concentrations of up to 10 parts per billion, he said. None were lower than 4 ppb. Of the 16 readings taken between Aug. 20 and 25, nine were higher than the WHO threshold of 5 ppb.

Bonetti, a Seneca Falls resident, urged the City Council to reject SMI’s bid for a local permit. “I beg every single one of you, I demand that every single one of you vote ‘no.’ Enough is enough,” she said. “This is our constitutional right. New York State has the Green Amendment … which entitles us to clean air, clean water, a healthy environment.”

Sandlas not only called on the board to deny the local permit, but also to explain its position to state officials.

“We ask that you deny the permit and let the City of Albany, the DEC, the Governor and the State Department of Health know that we do not support the expansion of Seneca Meadows.”

Kyle Black, Seneca Meadows manager, did not respond to an email from WaterFront seeking comment on the city council’s decision to postpone the local permit proceeding.

Peter is a three-time Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter who covers environmental issues in his first-of-its-kind digital publication, The Water Front. He has won numerous awards from the Associated Press, UPI and the Society of Professional Journalists. His reporting on environmental issues continues to be featured in prominent New York publications and is available on FingerLakes1.com through exclusive content partnerships. Have a question or tip? Send it to (email protected).