Taking Out The Garbage

In the first week in March, we reported on an application by Battaglia Trucking and Demolition, down on Seneca Street for a modification of its solid waste management permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The modification would raise Battaglia’s capacity from 3,800 tons of waste per month to 1,600 tons per day. Battaglia also wants a new, 13,000-square-foot building and increased operating hours. The modification also suggests that Battaglia might in the future import solid waste by train, conjuring fetid memories of the garbage train that wouldn’t leave the neighborhood back in 2003.

Naturally, the neighborhood—notably in the person of Seneca Babcock Community Association President Art Robinson—reacted strongly, and Common Council President Dave Franczyk quickly brought the mayor on board in opposing Battaglia’s expansion effort.

A letter from DEC to Mayor Byron Brown, asking the administration to help determine who the lead agency in the environmental analysis of the request ought to be, was filed with the Common Council on March 3. Last week, the DEC consented to name the city as lead agency in the environmental review of the project. Given unanimous opposition on the Council and in the administration, the project—which Franczyk described on Tuesday during a meeting of the Legislative Committee as “ill-fated” and a “scheme”—will go nowhere. Even if the DEC approve the project, it can’t proceed without a waste transfer permit from the city.

Peter Battaglia, the company’s president, did not attend Tuesday’s meeting, but he has coninually defended his company as “a good neighbor.” Residents on hand at Tuesday’s meeting disgreed, describing the awful noise and vibration that attended the concrete-crushing operation on site.

“He’s going to keep coming back,” Franczyk said. “It’s going to be like Whac-A-Mole.”

—geoff kelly