Brookhaven landfill to close ... eventually

The Brookhaven Town landfill's days are numbered -- even if the number is nearly two decades.

"The fact is, the landfill will close eventually," town supervisor Mark Lesko told dozens of residents at a forum last week on the facility in Yaphank.

Of the landfill's original six cells, the one remaining cell in use will likely be filled in 17 years, according to town projections. Then the cell will be capped and closed -- unless the landfill is expanded, Lesko said.

But some residents at the forum at Bellport High School called for the immediate closure of the landfill. They spoke of enduring years of odors and dust emanating from the site as well as from the nearby privately run Long Island Compost.

"When will Brookhaven Town start planning to close the landfill?" asked Claire Goad, president of the Friends of Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge, to applause and cheers from the audience.

Speakers at the forum, including representatives from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the county Department of Health, seemed to acknowledge the landfill has affected the quality of life of residents living in its shadow.

"It is an enormous burden that our residents are bearing," said Councilwoman Connie Kepert, who represents Yaphank.

Attendees said they also worry about contaminated groundwater in Yaphank, where tests have shown unusual levels of radioactivity in a plume thought to originate at the Long Island Compost facility.

Peter Scully, regional director of the DEC, told the audience that the agency was testing the water in conjunction with the county and Brookhaven National Laboratory. "This is totally new territory for us," he said of the investigation into the radioactivity found in the groundwater.

The landfill opened in 1974 and has been operated by the town since 1976.

In March, dozens of students and teachers at the Frank P. Long Intermediate School reported feeling nauseated from foul odors coming from the landfill, about a mile away. The state DEC then yanked the town's permit to accept sludge at the landfill, a move that cost Brookhaven a lucrative $3.5-million contract with New York City to accept monthly shipments.

Closing the landfill would have consequences -- the roughly $45 million generated in yearly net revenue is about half of the town's operating budget, Lesko said.

After the forum, Scully said, "[Lesko] inherited the situation where the town is dependent on that revenue, and that's a difficult liability to deal with. Trying to reduce dependence on the landfill for a source of revenue is a challenge."