Clock is ticking for waste management on Long Island

The clock is ticking for Long Island's municipal leaders regarding pragmatic waste management planning.

Far too many outside the waste and energy sectors fail to appreciate the role Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Long Island Power Authority play in the efficient disposal of much of our region’s solid waste.

LIPA extends power purchase agreements to Long Island's waste-to-energy facilities, where the trash in our garbage cans is burned. All of it — 1.742 million tons of municipal solid waste annually — is burned under strict air emission standards, substantially reducing the volume of waste and creating power. Those four facilities — in Hempstead, Babylon, Huntington and Islip — have agreements that LIPA will buy the power they produce. The facilities would shutter without those agreements, which expire in 2027, a deadline that is right around the corner.

If the governor and the State Legislature, who oversee the Department of Environmental Conservation and LIPA, do not extend those agreements, they will be responsible for the cataclysmic effect it will have on our region. Dramatic tax increases will be required to pay for the financially and environmentally misguided hauling of tons of trash off the Island, along with the public health impact if burning the trash cannot occur. We will not be able to keep that waste here with the Brookhaven landfill scheduled to shut down by 2028; the facility stopped accepting construction and demolition debris on Jan. 1. The cost to truck ash to southern New Jersey is $80 a ton for transport and $34 a ton for disposal. If we have to ship our trash off Long Island, we need to know now; acquiring fleets of trucks, especially electric trucks, or permitting new rail transfer facilities can take years, but the trash won't wait.

Municipal governments need certainty from our state to plan wisely. While we should also promote and expand recycling as a way to reduce our total waste, there are not enough strong markets for recyclable materials to significantly reduce our total waste.

There are myriad reasons this decision is not being made, but the primary reason is the legislature’s financially and fundamentally unrealistic Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goals which disregard waste-to-energy facilities as a renewable energy solution. The technology simply doesn’t exist to make the goals financially feasible. I say that as someone who leads one of the state's largest towns and who works daily to address climate change and lead Long Island in alternative energy.

The state's aspirational goals need to be grounded in pragmatism and reality. Our state motto is Excelsior, which is Latin for "Ever Upward" and appropriate for New York, which has historically distinguished itself as a leader in this nation. But right now, we are not leading. In fact, there is an appreciable lack of leadership when it comes to realistic waste management and energy policies.

No one is suggesting New York abandon or change its motto. We should always strive to rise upward and achieve more, but we must not allow ideology to triumph over reality with disregard for finances, technology, geography, and the forces of the marketplace. Pragmatic idealism should be the goal of our state government when it comes to our policies on waste management and energy. But in order to achieve that goal, the governor, LIPA and the legislature need to make rational decisions now. To wait longer imperils the ability for governmental leaders to adequately plan for the future of Long Island.

This guest essay reflects the views of Dan Panico, supervisor of the Town of Brookhaven.