for years<\/a>. <\/p>\nWaste Connections, which owns the landfill, wants to increase its footprint by nearly 50 acres and raise its maximum height by 70 feet. The Seneca Lake Guardian, a local environmental group, held a town hall with state and local leaders to hear from the community about the proposed expansion.<\/p>\n
Dozens of people gathered at the Seneca Falls Community Center to voice their opposition to the expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really feel for these people and our community, our Finger Lakes [are] beautiful. We want to keep it that way,\u201d said Marilyn Howard. <\/p>\n
Howard and her cousin, Stephanie Michaels, live about 10 miles away in Geneva, but say the fight against Seneca Meadows unites communities across the Finger Lakes. David Benedict, who lives in nearby Waterloo, said he is worried about air and water quality and public health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to hold my breath going up for 414 when I go by the landfill. That\u2019s where it\u2019s really horrendous. The smell,\u201d Benedict said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s [the trash runoff] going? It\u2019s going into our groundwater. Where is that flowing? Into the lake,\u201d Benedict said.<\/p>\n
Local advocates from the Seneca Lake Guardian were joined by assemblymembers from across the state. Emily Gallagher, who represents parts of Brooklyn, said she wants to ensure Seneca Falls does not face consequences for taking in Downstate New York\u2019s garbage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI care deeply about creating solutions and paths forward so that we can heal the environment and also offer every single community in New York State a real opportunity for self-determination and for, safe, healthy and happy lives,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n
One of the youngest voices at the meeting was 11-year-old Leo Mull, who shared his concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt stinks. And I want to be working on my soccer skills and be outside riding my bike with my friends\u2026I step outside and like, I step back inside because it smells really bad,\u201d Mull said. He added, that happens at least once per week. <\/p>\n
Sara Mull, Leo\u2019s mother, said she does not want her child to have to fight for clean air and water.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want your 11-year-old to have to fight to make sure that they have clean air and clean water. But obviously, as parents, you know, we see what air pollution and water pollution can do to, you know, a child\u2019s growing body,\u201d Mull said.<\/p>\n
A representative from the Department of Environmental Conservation said if the application for the Seneca Meadows expansion goes through, there will be a period of public comment before any expansion begins. <\/p>\n
According to the DEC, as of September 21st, Seneca Meadows has not completed its application for expansion. That was the same case when we reached out to the DEC in June. <\/p>\n
News10NBC reached out multiple times to Waste Connections but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0Seneca Meadows<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SENECA FALLS, N.Y. \u2014 The operators of Seneca Meadows Landfill are seeking to expand New York\u2019s largest landfill,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50,46301],"class_list":["post-368850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-seneca-meadows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}