Media Contact:
Meg Fitzgerald: meg.fitzgerald@berlinrosen.com, 406-696-1237

 

RESOURCES

Full report: [LINK]
Interactive statewide leachate map: [LINK]
StoryMap: “The Leachate Loophole” [LINK]
Public Action: on NYS Regulations “Leachate Management”  [LINK]

 

August 6, 2026

NEW STATEWIDE REPORT FINDS MORE THAN HALF A BILLION GALLONS OF TOXIC GARBAGE WATER IS DUMPED INTO NEW YORK DRINKING WATER SUPPLIES EACH YEAR 

Regulatory failure creates “leachate loophole,” allowing contaminated water from landfills to enter waterways across NYS 

Toxic “garbage water” discharged into the Hudson River, Mohawk River, Lake Ontario, Niagara River, NYC watershed, and interstate drinking water systems serving millions of people and vital ecosystems across New York State.

A major new statewide report, The Leachate Loophole in New York State, reveals that more than half a billion gallons (532,300,000) of toxic landfill leachate were sent annually from New York landfills to municipal sewage treatment plants between 2019 and 2023 — with approximately one-third (167,000,000) ultimately discharged into rivers and lakes officially designated as drinking water sources serving nearly two million people.

Released today by New York River Watch, the report uses public records and Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to expose what the group calls the “Leachate Loophole,” a systemic regulatory failure that allows landfill leachate — a highly contaminated liquid formed when rainwater and snowmelt percolate through garbage — to routinely enter waterways across New York State.

Although modern landfills are required to contain leachate because of its hazardous chemical load, the collected waste is commonly trucked or piped to municipal sewage treatment plants that are not designed or equipped to remove toxic contaminants, including PFAS “forever chemicals,” heavy metals, pesticides, and other industrial pollutants. Instead of eliminating these contaminants, the current system often relies on dilution and results in the dispersion of pollution into rivers and lakes that communities depend on for drinking water.

Some of the major findings detailed in the report:

• Landfills sent more than half a billion gallons of leachate (532,300,000) to New York State municipal sewage treatment plants each year from 2019-2023.
• At least seventy-five active (30) and inactive (45) landfills disposed of leachate at New York State municipal sewage treatment plants.
• Municipal sewage treatment plants that accepted leachate discharged into 24 water bodies in New York State and one in New Jersey.
• Approximately 167 million gallons of leachate—one-third of the total—ended up in rivers and lakes officially designated as drinking water sources. These waters supply drinking water to nearly 2 million New Yorkers.
• The four rivers and lakes that received the largest leachate volumes—Lake Ontario, Hudson River, Niagara River, and Mohawk River—are also major drinking water sources.
• In New York State, leachate is being discharged into rivers which supply drinking water to New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other Pennsylvania municipalities.
• Many chemicals that have been banned or phased out of commerce due to ecological and human health risks—including metals, pesticides, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—continue to appear in landfill leachate because they persist in waste deposited decades ago.
• There were serious discrepancies between leachate disposal data reported by landfills and that reported by sewage treatment plants, including over 100 million gallons of leachate that landfills reported and were not accounted for by any municipal sewage treatment plant in our study.
• Just three private companies, each earning $2 – $25 billion in 2025 revenues, managed half of the leachate generated by active New York landfills.

“This practice has been happening legally, largely out of public view, ever since landfills were first required to control leachate,” said Jen Epstein, Co-founder and Director of Science at New York River Watch. “People often assume sewage treatment plants remove these contaminants because the term ‘wastewater treatment plant’ suggests the waste is fully treated. But these facilities were designed to handle domestic sewage — not the complex chemical mixtures found in landfill leachate.”

The report identifies discharges into some of New York’s most important drinking water supplies, including the Hudson River, Mohawk River, Niagara River, and Lake Ontario. It also documents contamination pathways into the West Delaware River, which flows into the Cannonsville Reservoir and New York City’s drinking water system, as well as rivers that supply downstream communities in Pennsylvania and Maryland, including Baltimore and Philadelphia.

“The findings in this report raise significant concerns for the more than 107,000 residents who rely on the Hudson River as their primary source of drinking water,” said Mayor Gary Bassett, Chair of the Hudson River Drinking Water Intermunicipal Council (Hudson 7). “While we continue to monitor water quality and have not observed regulated contaminants exceeding drinking water standards at our treatment facilities, the current system places additional burdens and potential risks on downstream communities that depend on the Hudson River for safe drinking water. Hudson 7 has consistently advocated for stronger oversight and updated regulations that address leachate at its source and reduce the discharge of inadequately treated landfill waste into our waterways. Protecting drinking water requires a proactive approach that prevents pollution from reaching the river in the first place, rather than relying solely on treatment after it enters the drinking water supply.”

The report also highlights the concentration of leachate management among a small number of large waste corporations, with private companies — each earning between $2 billion and $25 billion in 2025 revenue — managing 56% of leachate generated by active New York landfills. Among them is Waste Connections, which owns and operates Seneca Meadows landfill and manages Colonie landfill. Waste Connections reported $9.5 billion in revenue in 2025. 

The report identifies Seneca Meadows Landfill in Seneca Falls as the single largest source of landfill leachate in New York State, generating an average of more than 65 million gallons annually between 2019 and 2023. Leachate from Seneca Meadows is sent to multiple municipal sewage treatment plants, including facilities that discharge into major drinking water sources, illustrating how a single landfill can spread contamination risks far beyond its host community.  Buffalo Sewer Authority’s Bird Island (38.3 million gallons into Niagara River), Seneca Falls (13.9 million gallons into Seneca River), City of Watertown (9.2 million gallons into Black River) are the largest recipients of Seneca Meadows’ leachate. 

As the state’s largest landfill and largest generator of leachate, Seneca Meadows exemplifies the scale of the “Leachate Loophole” and the challenges facing regulators as they consider new requirements for onsite treatment and stronger oversight of landfill wastewater disposal.

“Seneca Meadows is the largest landfill in New York and the largest producer of landfill leachate in the state, generating more than 65 million gallons of toxic garbage water every year that is trucked across the state and dumped into communities,” said Yvonne Taylor, Vice President of Seneca Lake Guardian. “This report shows that pollution doesn’t stop at the edge of a landfill – it is transported to sewage treatment plants and ultimately discharged into waterways that communities depend on for drinking water. Seneca Meadows has become a symbol of a broken system that allows corporate waste to create risks far beyond the communities forced to host these facilities.”

The report calls on the Governor Hochul and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to close the “leachate loophole” by requiring onsite treatment of landfill leachate and prohibiting the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated leachate through municipal sewage systems. These regulations should apply to active, inactive, and closed landfills that continue to generate leachate. The report also urges DEC to ensure that any regulatory solution protects communities and water resources without merely shifting pollution elsewhere or concentrating treatment capacity among a small number of large corporations.

“This report shows that the garbage we bury does not disappear,” said Rebecca Martin, Co-founder and Executive Director of New York River Watch. “It returns to our rivers, lakes, and drinking water as toxic liquid waste. We need to fundamentally change how we approach this problem, and include all landfills that collect leachate. Any rule that fails to address all sources of leachate fails to address the full scope of the threat. This is a statewide drinking water issue, a public health issue, and an environmental justice issue. New York has the opportunity to become a national leader by closing the Leachate Loophole and addressing the full lifecycle of toxic chemicals in our waste stream.”

Many contaminants found in leachate have been banned or phased out due to known environmental and health risks, yet they remain present in buried waste and continue to be released into the environment through landfill leachate. The report notes that many of these chemicals can pose risks at extremely low concentrations and may accumulate in waterways over time.

“The discharge of leachate poison into our river is a travesty. It is incomprehensible that NYS regulators have been aware of this massive statewide source of toxic pollution for decades and are only now beginning to act,” said Captain John Lipscomb, technical advisor to the project, who first raised concerns about landfill leachate discharges with Rebecca Martin and Jen Epstein while the three worked together at Hudson Riverkeeper. He has spent more than 25 years patrolling and advocating for the Hudson River.  “We’ve faced statewide pollution crises before. We remember acid rain. We stopped fracking before it happened. And we’re still living with PCB contamination in the Hudson River. Leachate pollution is different. It is not coming from out of state or one bad company. It is our mess, our poison, and it is being legally dumped into our rivers, our ecosystems, and our drinking water. Ending this pollution is entirely within the power of our state regulators and our governor. Fifty-four years after the Clean Water Act, it’s time to end the discharge of untreated landfill leachate—from all landfills and all sources.”

New York River Watch, formerly the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers Leachate Collaborative, is a statewide organization dedicated to protecting New York’s rivers, lakes, and drinking water sources from landfill leachate contamination. The campaign began in 2023 with research documenting leachate pollution in the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, which provide drinking water to nearly 370,000 people. In December 2024, the collaborative released its landmark report, The Threat of Landfill Leachate to Drinking Water in the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, finding that municipal sewage treatment plants discharge approximately 89 million gallons of landfill leachate into the portion of those rivers near drinking water intakes each year. As the statewide scale of the issue became clear, the organization expanded in 2025 to form New York River Watch and conduct this report.