SENECA FALLS, N.Y. — The fate of New York’s largest landfill, located in the heart of the Finger Lakes, remains in limbo. The Seneca Falls Town Board decided to table the issue for three months on Tuesday night.

Seneca Meadows is set to shut down next year but its operator, Waste Connections, wants to keep it open through 2040. The board was set to vote on whether to grant the company a local permit to continue operations.

Dozens of neighbors, businesses, and organizations packed the town board meeting, fighting for the same cause. They say they no longer want to be dumped on and want the town to deny an expansion permit that would allow Seneca Meadows to expand the landfill seven stories higher.

“It already takes 6,000 tons of garbage a day and it would allow it to operate until 2040 which would be just an environmental and more importantly a health disaster,” said Valerie Sandlas, who has lived in Seneca Falls for 39 years.

Sandlas says Seneca Meadows is in violation of code because noxious smells are leaving the landfill. Her neighbor, Steve Churchill, a former town board member, agrees and says this is the largest landfill in the state and has been here since the 1950s.

“When I was on the board we didn’t approve the operating permit for two years. So it doesn’t do anything. One of the things it does is send a message to DEC that people in this town want it shut down,” Churchill said.

Heather Bonetti, who was born and raised in Seneca Falls, has been fighting for over 20 years to get the landfill shut down. “It’s just very frustrating to keep saying the same song and dance. Month after month after month, nothing has changed, but that has gotten worse,” she said.

News10NBC tried to find a neighbor who was in favor of the landfill but couldn’t. One neighbor, who didn’t want to be identified, questioned the impact of lung cancer on neighbors that other neighbors say is due to the landfill, based on studies.

“When you do this study none of these people have smoked. People are dying of cancer all over, not within the landfill,” the neighbor said.

News10NBC tried to talk to Seneca Meadows, the operator of the landfill, but a representative said he had no comment and walked away. Residents say the fight is not over. If this permit is extended down the line, they will continue to fight.

News10NBC reached out to the state DEC, which holds the final say on what happens. A representative is working to get information on what’s next and when the DEC’s decision on Seneca Meadows could be made.

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