We recognize that simply shuttering a massive landfill site is no easy task, and we also understand that the debris and waste doesn’t disappear if we simply want it to be gone.
However, the plans to close the Brookhaven landfill have been pushed to 2027, but the facility will cease accepting ash at the end of this year.
That leaves the Town with an unenviable problem: what to do with the waste, how to get rid of it efficiently, how to mitigate health concerns from the landfill, and how to plug the massive hole left behind in the budget.
One solution being presented is the potential railyard in Kings Park. It recently cleared its federal review for a 5,000-foot rail extension, but it’s still a long way off from being approved, and an even longer way from being constructed and operational, should it be approved.
The alternative that’s commonly quoted is trucking the waste off Long Island. It’s not a bad alternative, but would be costlier and pose significant quality-of-life issues on our already-congested roadways. There’s also a good argument for health concerns, as idling trucks are feared to worsen air quality.
It’s not the current Town government’s fault that a decent chunk of Brookhaven’s budget was dependent on the landfill, but it is incumbent upon them to continue working on solutions. The green energy solutions are a good start, but it doesn’t make up for the $21 million being lost from declining landfill revenues. If anything, this should serve as a model for municipalities to not rely so heavily on a revenue stream that has been in end-of-life stages for years.
Being a municipality situated on Long Island makes it imperative that money is made on our garbage, ideally hand-over-fist. The concept is there, but the infrastructure is not. And if the Kings Park rail yard ends up not being approved, which would be of great relief to many Smithtown residents, it’s back to the drawing board, and possibly a longer lifespan for the landfill if other solutions do not emerge.
At the very least, operations at the landfill are winding down, something Town officials have long fought for. If there’s any silver lining, it’s that health and environmental impacts can begin being curbed if the use of the site is halted as intended.
The other silver lining is that Brookhaven is not alone. Eight other towns plan to pierce their tax caps, all but Smithtown and Huntington. All cite unfunded state mandates and a harsh economic climate at-large as the main culprits, but Brookhaven’s problem is much more localized with the landfill. Had the landfill not been a de facto dirty bomb from previous administrations – starting with the State DEC nearly forty years ago – this impact could have been avoided.
We can at least understand the Town’s desire to not cut services, even if it does mean a tax hike when the last elections were run almost entirely on affordability and quality of life. While the Town is caught between a rock and a hard place by virtue of the past, it’s still resulting in a tax hike in the first year of the new administration, something that’s unlikely to win brownie points with residents.
We’re refraining from calling too harsh shots here, given we haven’t had the opportunity to sit down with members of the Board to discuss the budget. It’s certainly a developing story that we intend to track religiously.
