A community representative asked the City of Kingston Public Safety and Government Committee on Tuesday to send a resolution asking the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to begin rulemaking to better regulate landfill leachate and its discharge into wastewater systems.

The request was presented during a committee meeting by a representative of a local environmental advisory group; Robert Tennyson, the committee chair, and other members heard a detailed summary of a recent research report on landfill leachate and drinking-water risk in the Hudson and Mohawk river watersheds.

The presenter said the report — originally released in December and updated in January — documents that both operating and closed municipal landfills can generate leachate that is collected and sent to wastewater treatment plants. Because treatment plants are not designed to remove every contaminant, the presenter said, “there’s just not enough rules about what can be in the leachate” and that contaminants found in leachate include long-lived compounds often referred to as PFAS. The presenter told the committee the ask is for the city to request that DEC initiate formal rulemaking to address management, treatment and disposal of landfill leachate.

The presenter cited examples of previous local actions on the issue, saying Ulster County passed a resolution in April, local officials including former state senator Jen Metzger and Mayor Noble have sent letters, and a regional coalition often called the Hudson 7 has also written to DEC. The presenter said a draft resolution was available to committee members for review.

Committee members asked procedural questions about next steps for submitting a resolution and how the city would coordinate with county and regional efforts. The presenter said a draft could be provided and requested the committee’s preferred process for formal consideration.

No formal committee vote or adoption of a resolution on the matter was recorded in the meeting transcript. Instead the request remained at the stage of asking the committee to consider sending a resolution and of offering committee staff a draft to work from.

If the committee chooses to advance the request, the action would be a referral or formal resolution from the committee/city asking DEC to initiate rulemaking; the transcript does not show the committee taking that formal step during this meeting.

Community members and officials who want to follow up were told to contact the presenter for the draft language and that planning staff had already provided a short paragraph for internal planning guidance related to other environmental items discussed that night.

The committee meeting included other environmental items (tree ordinance comments, wetland jurisdiction questions) that the presenter said were linked to planning and DEC processes, but the landfill leachate item was presented as a distinct regulatory request and informational briefing.

The city did not commit to a formal vote on the resolution during the session, and no timeline for staff follow-up was recorded in the transcript.