Waste transfer station plans move forward

With a change in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation regulations rendering the current waste compactor at the Arlington Avenue yard out of code, village administrators are in the final planning stages of a project that would update the entire process.

“It was a must-do,” said Building Superintendent Tom McAleer of the decision to move ahead with the project.

The current waste compactor is roughly 30 years old, and no longer compliant with DEC design codes that require all solid waste transfer stations receiving more than either 50,000 cubic yards or 12,500 tons of solid waste annually to operate “within an enclosed building or covered area.”

The village’s waste management company, Jamaica Ash, has agreed to pay for a new bailer once the plan is approved, which comes with a price of about $1.5 million. The village would foot the bill for construction of the building — the cost of which has yet to be calculated.

The bailer would sit inside an enclosed building similar in size to the incinerator that was demolished almost three years ago — but set about 15 feet below grade, McAleer said, where the former building’s basement used to be. This would allow for a structure that is roughly the same size, but barely visible, according to McAleer. “If you walk by, it won’t be high enough where you can see it,” he said.

A driveway would allow trucks to drive into the building and dump garbage into a container until it’s ready to be bailed and bound with wire into 2-by-4-by-6-foot cubes. The transportation of the final product, McAleer said, would still be Jamaica Ash’s responsibility. “It doesn’t change how we do business,” he said.

From an environmental perspective, Trustee Vincent Grasso said that the new facility could improve the quality of the process. When the old incinerator building fell into disrepair, he said, the potential for rodent and pest infestation increased. He also said that the bailing process would consolidate different types of waste into categories, which could allow the village to realize better efficiency.