By MIKE CAPUTO
The Town of Hempstead's Industrial Development Agency (IDA), which granted the company its existing tax relief deal 25 years ago, held a public hearing on Nov. 20 to address the proposal to add a fourth boiler to the Covanta plant. The additional unit would increase the amount of waste the plant could process by about 40 percent.
Community members who attended the hearing raised concerns about the financial and environmental effects of the proposal. Bob Young, an environmental activist from Merrick, pointed out Covanta's status as a for-profit company that has seen its stock rise from $3 a share in 2003 to as high as $30 at one point this year. On Tuesday, Covanta stock was selling for $19 a share.
"It is absurd," said Young. "Why should we be underwriting that? Does the company really need us or are we artificially keeping their profits high on the backs of Town of Hempstead taxpayers?"
One civic leader pointed out that there should be something in the proposed expansion for the surrounding communities. "We just can't sit by and enhance the operation where the Town of Hempstead and the taxpayers are not getting credit in a financial way," said Robert Zafonte, president of the East Meadow Civic Association. "They both have to come into a financial partnership where both make out, because we become the host."
IDA President Fred Parola said Covanta has an important role as a "quasi-government" entity that performs the "crucial government role of disposing of solid waste." Parola explained that the taxpayers benefit from the plant's tax breaks because of the lower fees Covanta charges the town.
Covanta "pays heavily for that break to the Town of Hempstead," Parola said. "Ultimately the beneficiaries are the Town of Hempstead residents whose tipping fees - the disposal of solid waste costs - went down, which helps the taxpayer and the town."
Instead of negotiating a Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, program, which Parola said would benefit the county, Covanta's existing agreement with the town - and, potentially, the future deal - gives the town an exclusive advantage.
However, Parola said, consideration of the proposal is still in the preliminary stages, with an extensive environmental study yet to come. "We have hired environmental experts who are helping us direct our and the community's concerns in terms of what must be measured, considered and mitigated," he said, "and to analyze and ascertain the full impact, from an environmental standpoint, of the proposed project."
According to Covanta officials, about 1 million tons of waste a year is trucked to landfills outside Long Island. Ken Straitz, a facility manager at the plant, contends that the waste-to-energy process is more environmentally efficient. "The energy waste process is greenhouse gas-positive, as opposed to low-haul trucking and disposing of the waste in a landfill," Straitz said.
The expansion would allow the plant to process 400,000 more tons of waste a year, which could ultimately open it to other municipalities that are currently trucking their waste off-island, including the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay, according to John Waffenschmidt, Covanta's vice president for environmental science and community affairs.
"We obviously can't address all of the issues of all the waste that is going off Long Island," Waffenschmidt said, "but we can address a good portion."
Increased waste would mean more traffic, which was another key issue addressed by community members at the hearing. "It encourages a tremendous amount of traffic," Zafonte said. "I insisted that there be a traffic impact study. They are going to need a [traffic] light."
Waffenschmidt said that the traffic study would examine the increase in truck traffic and its impact on nearby intersections.
Although Covanta hopes to begin construction by 2010, Parola noted that there are much more environmental analysis and public hearings to come. "It is the first step in a very long process," he said.
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