Local Attorney Wins Appeal To Close Largest NY State Landfill

By SARAH ROBERTS
SENECA MEADOWS

Local attorney Douglas Zamelis, of Springfield, recently won an important victory at the second highest court in the state in an ongoing battle to close the largest landfill in the state of New York.

In 2010, Zamelis began to work with the Concerned Citizens of Seneca County and the Waterloo Container Company in order to address concerns about the Seneca Meadows landfill. The primary issue was the foul smell impacting the communities of Seneca Falls and Waterloo. With Zamelis’ help, the Town of Seneca Falls Local Law #3 was passed in 2016, ordering the landfill to be capped in 2025 and barring any further waste disposal within the Town of Seneca Falls.

Litigation has been ongoing ever since.

Seneca Meadows Inc., the landfill’s operators, challenged LL#3 in the Seneca County Supreme Court, and the law was repealed in 2017 by a new town board. Zamelis and his allies then successfully fought to reinstate the law, and a second lawsuit was filed by SMI which did not garner town board support.

“The Seneca County Supreme Court granted our motion to intervene, giving us full party status, and we moved to dismiss SMI’s second lawsuit as untimely because the statute of limitations had passed before the second suit was commenced,” Zamelis explained. “The Seneca County Supreme Court dismissed SMI’s second lawsuit as time barred, and SMI appealed to AD4D [Appellate Division Fourth Department], which reversed and held that the second suit was timely and allowed it to proceed.”

SMI challenged LL#3 via the New York State Environmental Quality and Review Act, claiming that the Seneca Falls Town Board failed to comply with those regulations. The Seneca County Supreme Court ruled in favor of SMI, and the Concerned Citizens of Seneca County and Zamelis appealed to AD4D.

The appeal was successful, and AD4D disagreed that SMI had standing to challenge LL3# under SEQRA in a 3-2 ruling in favor of the Concerned Citizens.

Since the ruling was not unanimous, SMI is expected to turn now to the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.

“It is unfathomable to me that the State of New York allows the people of Seneca Falls, Waterloo, and beyond to be subjected to such abominable conditions from a landfill that disposes of waste from all of New York, eight other states, and Canada,” Zamelis said. “People describe this as a David versus Goliath thing, and I like to point out how that worked out for Goliath.”

When asked why it is so important to the community that Seneca Meadows be shut down, Zamelis said, “It’s important to the community because SMI adversely affects the quality of life on a daily basis, it disparages their community character, and New York State Department of Health data appear to indicate a cancer cluster.”

Zamelis then referred to data from the NYSDOH which indicates that lung cancer in the surrounding region occurred at a rate approximately 50 percent higher than expected from 2011-2015, and approximately 31 percent higher from 2016-2020.

“The path going forward is now very uncertain for SMI because its permit from DEC is set to expire and the landfill is expected to run out of permitted space before December 31, 2025,” Zamelis said. “SMI has applied to NYSDEC to extend the life of the landfill for another 15 years.

“It is unclear when the Court of Appeals will ultimately render the last judicial word, but it may not be before December 31…So this is going to come down to the wire. We have them between a rock and a hard place, but I would not be at all surprised if NYSDEC approves the expansion despite all the ongoing problems.”

As of press time, Seneca Meadows Inc. had not responded to a request for comment.

Zamelis has been a member of the New York State Bar since 1990. His law office is located in Springfield Center.