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County accepts DEC grants for HHW and recycling coordination and renews closed‑landfill monitoring contract
Summary
Tompkins County accepted two New York State DEC grants—Household Hazardous Waste (~$42,000 reimbursement) and Municipal Waste Reduction & Recycling Coordination (tentative award ~$192,000)—and approved a contract to continue environmental monitoring of two closed landfills.
The Facilities & Infrastructure Committee approved acceptance of two New York State Department of Environmental Conservation grants and awarded a contract to continue environmental monitoring at Tompkins County’s closed landfills.
Nate Bates, Recycling & Waste Reduction Coordinator, explained the Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) grant reimburses eligible expenses from 2024 collection events (the program contracts with an HHW vendor to operate collection days), with an award amount around $42,000. He described the collection process: a contractor (Clean Harbors) receives materials at county events, sorts them by category with chemists on site, and transports the material the same day or shortly after for disposal or reuse where appropriate.
Staff also presented a tentative award notification from DEC’s Municipal Waste Reduction & Recycling Coordination (MWRC) program with a cited award of approximately $192,000; that grant is structured to reimburse roughly half of eligible outreach and program costs, and staff noted the final eligible expense list may be lower than the tentative award amount. The committee approved acceptance subject to contract review.
Finally, the committee authorized a contract for closed‑landfill environmental monitoring: periodic groundwater sampling at two closed landfills (Caswell and Hillview) and sampling of selected residential wells, with laboratory analysis and DEC reporting requirements. Staff noted the closed landfill work is funded from the annual solid‑waste fee (currently $85 per household) and not from county general funds.
Committee members asked procedural and operational questions about disposal chains, program timing and the annual fee; staff said grant reimbursement cycles can lag and that they will continue to report results and budget implications back to the committee.
