Town of Brookhaven Scraps Plan For Ashfill At Yaphank Dump

BROOOKHAVEN, NY —After backlash from some community groups, the Town of Brookhaven announced Thursday that a plan to construct an ashfill at the Brookhaven landfill will be scrapped. The town cited concerns about the cost projections exceeding original estimates. The Brookhaven landfill is set to close by 2024 as it reaches capacity.

The municipal ashfill plan was designed to address the coming closure of the landfill by burning waste that would then be deposited as ash but the town says the cost estimates of the project have increased from $32 to $178 million. The town blamed a lack of transparency from the sole bidder.

“When New York passed the Long Island Landfill Law, the state was supposed to create laws to reduce the waste stream, increase recycling and create regional solutions for waste management. That was never done. When our facility reaches capacity under its current permit we will stop taking in material and handle our waste in the same manner as every other town on Long Island has since 1989 when their landfills closed,” Town Supervisor Romaine said in a news release.

“To solve Long Island’s garbage crisis, the state must address the source of the problem— by regulating excessive packaging, mandating the use of recycled material and creating new recycling markets so the material our residents sort for recycling have a place to go.”

Councilman Michael Loguercio said that the facility will be transformed into an energy park to provide clean, alternative energy to the power grid after it closes.

Scott Gelber is a a member of the Brookhaven Landfill Action & Remediation Group (BLARG) that vocally opposed the ashfill proposal.

"This decision represents a major milestone in our community, which has been fighting back against the environmental injustices that have plagued so many within our town for decades," he wrote in an email to Patch.

BLARG says they are looking forward to being involved in a conversation going forward to create a zero-waste garbage plan to move Long Island away from landfill and incineration.

Brookhaven resasserted its plan to continue to use the current landfill in Yaphank until it is at capacity. No information about alternative proposals to handle the town's waste was yet released, but proposals for waste transfer stations that will cart trash off by rail are being considered in Medford and Yaphank. Other Long Island towns either ship waste to out-of-state or upstate New York landfills or use ash landfills.