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The Dunn C&D Landfill is visible above city houses on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. In 2016, the landfill took in 407,975 tons of debris. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
The Dunn C&D Landfill is visible above city houses on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. In 2016, the landfill took in 407,975 tons of debris. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
The Dunn C&D Landfill is visible above city houses on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. In 2016, the landfill took in 407,975 tons of debris. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
The Dunn C&D Landfill is visible above city houses on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. In 2016, the landfill took in 407,975 tons of debris. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
The Dunn C&D Landfill is visible above city houses on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. In 2016, the landfill took in 407,975 tons of debris. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
The Dunn C&D Landfill is visible above city houses on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. In 2016, the landfill took in 407,975 tons of debris. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Sign outside of the Dunn C&D Landfill lists what is, and is not, acceptable material to dump on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at the end of Partition Street in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Sign outside of the Dunn C&D Landfill lists what is, and is not, acceptable material to dump on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at the end of Partition Street in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
The Albany skyline is seen from Partition Street near the Dunn C&D Landfill on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
The Albany skyline is seen from Partition Street near the Dunn C&D Landfill on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Entrance to the Dunn C&D Landfill on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at the end of Partition Street in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Entrance to the Dunn C&D Landfill on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at the end of Partition Street in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Entrance to the Dunn C&D Landfill on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at the end of Partition Street in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Entrance to the Dunn C&D Landfill on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at the end of Partition Street in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Garbage is dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Garbage is dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Garbage is dispersed after being dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Garbage is dispersed after being dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Garbage is dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Garbage is dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Garbage is dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Garbage is dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Land is opened up at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Land is opened up at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
A tractor trailer moves past a sign protesting the Dunn C&D Landfill on Partition Street on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. The truck was leaving the landfill after dumping its load of garbage there. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
lessA tractor trailer moves past a sign protesting the Dunn C&D Landfill on Partition Street on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. The truck was leaving the landfill after dumping its load of garbage
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Heavy truck traffic moves through Partition Street after dumping garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Heavy truck traffic moves through Partition Street after dumping garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Heavy truck traffic moves through Partition Street to dump garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Heavy truck traffic moves through Partition Street to dump garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Heavy truck traffic moves down Partition Street after dumping garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Heavy truck traffic moves down Partition Street after dumping garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Heavy truck traffic moves through Partition Street after dumping garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Heavy truck traffic moves through Partition Street after dumping garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Heavy truck traffic moves up Partition Street to dump garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Heavy truck traffic moves up Partition Street to dump garbage at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Garbage is dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Garbage is dumped at the Dunn C&D Landfill on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
A tractor trailer heads past Louis Sebesta's home on Partition Street as it heads to the Dunn C&D Landfill to dump a load of trash on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
A tractor trailer heads past Louis Sebesta's home on Partition Street as it heads to the Dunn C&D Landfill to dump a load of trash on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, in Rensselaer, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron
Complaints about Rensselaer landfill draw state's eye
A century-old gravel mine with a million-dollar view of the Albany skyline has grown into the state's largest dump for construction and demolition waste, drawing thousands of massive dump trucks that rumble through a Rensselaer neighborhood from dawn to dusk.
Arriving from seven different states, trucks come to the Dunn C&D Landfill to dump tons of debris into huge pits that can be seen from Albany. State Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos, whose agency OK'd the dump back in 2012, sees it from his 14th floor office window at DEC headquarters.
And Seggos, who this winter noticed a "large dust cloud ... wafting" from the dump, does not like what he is seeing. He said DEC is investigating and is prepared to enforce any violations it finds.
"I am not satisfied with this situation now either," he said, when asked Thursday about neighbors' concerns about truck noise, diesel fumes, dirt and blowing debris. "I can see the impacts ... we will be looking at everything."
The first trucks started rolling in early 2015, and by the end of last year, nearly 50,000 trucks had gone in and out, according to annual reports filed with DEC. And every truck had only one way to get there — through Partition Street, where residents say they are confronted daily with noise, dirt and diesel fumes.
Rensselaer city officials, who signed a 2009 agreement to support the dump even before it was officially proposed by the mine's former owner, Michael Dunn, say their hands were tied after losing a lawsuit to Dunn two decades earlier over attempts to limit truck traffic to the mine.
Dunn later sold the 99-acre property to Waste Connections, a Texas-based corporation that is one of the nation's largest waste haulers. As part of the $30 million sale, which also included a dump in Texas, Dunn received a $3 million bonus for obtaining the state and city agreements necessary for the dump, according to a report that Waste Connections filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016.
The dump can legally accept concrete, sheetrock, asphalt, masonry, roofing materials, plumbing fixtures, insulation (but not asbestos), empty buckets, wood, plastics and "pulverized waste." It cannot take regular household garbage or hazardous waste.
Under the 2009 agreement with Dunn, Waste Connections pays Rensselaer $2 per ton of construction waste. Payments to the city have totaled about $2.7 million through 2017, according to annual reports that show the dump has taken in about 1.25 million tons of waste.
This tonnage means the Dunn dump is taking more than the Albany and Colonie municipal landfills combined. With disposal fees at comparable construction and demolition dumps elsewhere in the state at about $55 a ton, that debris could have netted Waste Connections about $68 million in revenue.
City Attorney Paul Goldman said the city had to support the dump project because it lost a 1991 legal challenge against Dunn to enforce truck weight restrictions on city streets. He said the city at least should benefit financially from a facility that it could not block.
However, said Goldman, he was unaware that Dunn ever told city officials that he was going to sell the dump to Waste Connections, or about the $3 million bonus he would get for landing the city and state approvals, including the 2009 agreement signed by Mayor Dan Dwyer. "Mr. Dunn was free to sell his property to whoever he wanted to," said Goldman.
Attempts to reach Dunn, who is now president of the Wilton-based Kubricky Construction Corp., and officials from Waste Connections, for comment were not successful.
The state permit for the dump issued to Dunn, and now held by Waste Connections, allows for up to 100 truck round-trips a day, between 6:30 a.m. and 4 p.m Monday through Friday. The truck limit was originally part of a 1992 state permit for Dunn to transport sand and gravel out of the mine, although Dunn reported to DEC that fewer than 800 truck round-trips occurred in 2010.
Last year, the dump averaged 78 trucks a day, including those that carry sand and gravel from the mine, or leachate, the tainted water that seeps out of the dump. Waste Connections could add thousands more trucks and still be within its permit.
Residents like Louis Sebesta, who sees, hears and smells trucks as they thunder past his Partition Street home, question how the city and the DEC could have ever permitted an operation so large and obtrusive.
"Welcome to Rensselaer, the Trash City," said Sebesta, a retired DEC forester who bought his home in 2013. Built in the 1820s, it was once a residence of a city mayor.
Now, vibrations from passing trucks — each carrying an average 28 tons of waste — are so bad inside his home that pictures on the walls are constantly tilting.
"I am worried what this might be doing to the foundations of my home and the other people who live along the street," Sebesta said. He said the city or state should conduct studies on traffic noise, dirt and diesel fumes — all of which DEC initially determined would not be a problem when it approved the dump permit for Dunn.
And the dump could be there for years to come; in an environmental report that Dunn filed with DEC, he indicated the dump would not be full until 2036, at which point it would cover more than 50 acres. The state permit is due to expire in July 2022 unless it is renewed.
Seggos said the DEC permit was properly reviewed. However, that review found the dump would have a "small visual impact" from Albany and that truck noise would be "unnoticed to tolerable."
Idling 18-wheel waste trucks start lining up on the street at 6 a.m., a half hour before the dump opens, said Colleen Hulett, another resident. "It is crazy here. You are afraid to back out of your driveway." Her 13-year-old daughter, Monique, waits for her school bus on the street. "You have to dodge the trucks," she said.
She attends Rensselaer High School, on the other side of the dump. "You can hear noises from when you are in class. Grinding, rumbling ... it is very distressing."
Near the high school, Joanne Farrell has visited her parents' and grandparent's graves in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, which is across from the dump. She routinely finds debris that has blown onto the graves.
"I have picked up cereal boxes, medical papers, styrofoam food containers ... stuff is hanging from the trees," said Farrell, who is a co-founder of Rensselaer Community Action, a grass-roots group that wants the dump closed.
So far this year, DEC inspectors have visited the dump a dozen times, said Seggos. Earlier this year, DEC caught Waste Connections taking in municipal waste from the Colonie town landfill, which was a violation of its permit at Dunn. The company was told to stop, but was not fined.
"If there are issues, we will proceed to enforcement," Seggos said. "The people of the city deserve that, and it is our job."
bnearing@timesunion.com • 518-454-5094 • @Bnearing10
