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Environmentalists Oppose Connecticut Plan To Burn Garbage In Hudson Valley

Courtesy of Pixabay

Elected officials and environmentalists in New York are coming out against a plan by Connecticut to burn more than 100,000 tons of garbage in a Hudson Valley community.

The Lafarge Cement Plant in Ravena, New York, is one of three proposal sites being considered by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. If picked, 116,000 tons of solid waste would be burned there annually for 30 years.

Judith Enck, former EPA regional administrator during the Obama administration, is one of a number of environmentalists who are against the plan.

“When you burn garbage at either a cement kiln or a more conventional incinerator, you emit large amounts of air pollution. Whether it’s heavy metals like mercury or lead or arsenic, or what we are very concerned about at the cement kiln is burning plastics. When you burn plastics that forms and releases dioxin and furans, the most toxic human-made chemicals known to science.”

Enck says she hopes that the Connecticut DEEP will reconsider its plan.

“We don't want that air pollution in upstate New York along with the beautiful Hudson River, and we really, strongly advise the Connecticut Environmental and Energy Agency and the Connecticut governor to reject the idea of sending solid waste from 70 Connecticut communities to upstate New York where we are convinced it will pollute the air.”

Other sites being considered are the Hartford incinerator and Covanta incinerators in Bristol and Preston.

The Connecticut DEEP is scheduled to make a decision by this Sunday, December 31.