Take Action

Send a Message: Urge The NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to Adopt New Regulations for On-site Treatment and Disposal of Leachate at Landfills

Because of the “Leachate Loophole”—a set of regulatory gaps that allow landfill leachate, the toxic liquid created when water percolates through landfills—approximately 89 million gallons of landfill leachate were discharged into the Mohawk River and Hudson River Estuary each year from 2019-2023. These discharges happened at sewage treatment plants owned by local governments.  That volume is enough to fill about 12,400 average size tanker trucks.  These rivers serve as a drinking water source for approximately 368,000 people, including populations disproportionately impacted by environmental harms.

Modern landfills are required to implement extensive measures to contain leachate and protect nearby groundwater and streams. However, once this leachate is collected, it is often sent away from the landfills to municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for disposal. These facilities are designed to handle sewage, not landfill leachate and they are not required or designed to remove the toxic substances in leachate—even when discharging into drinking water sources. The burden of removing these harmful chemicals then falls to drinking water treatment plants, whose operators may not even be aware that nearby WWTPs are accepting leachate.

In 2023, DEC acknowledged this problem by announcing its consideration of new regulations (or Rulemaking) requiring on-site treatment and disposal of landfill leachate. Now that the harm caused by this practice is clear, we cannot afford to wait.

Join us in urging DEC to adopt new regulations for Onsite Treatment and Disposal of Landfill Leachate as soon as possible, with ample opportunity for public input. 

How to take action:

  1. Read the sample letter (below) and include an opening statement about why this issue is important to you. Personalized letters have a greater impact.
  2. Complete the required fields and click “Send Message.”
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Adopt New Regulations for On-site Treatment and Disposal of Leachate at Landfills

I am writing to urge the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to adopt new On-site Treatment and Disposal of Landfill Leachate regulations as soon as possible.  By taking this long overdue action, DEC has a critical opportunity to close the "leachate loophole" and require landfills to treat toxic leachate before it is transported offsite and released into the environment.

The December 2024 report, The Threat of Landfill Leachate to Drinking Water in the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, identified the regulatory gaps that allow  contaminated landfill leachate to be sent to municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and discharged into these rivers, which serve as primary or partial drinking water sources for approximately 368,000 people. This report maps these discharges in relation to drinking water supplies, shedding light on the risks posed by DEC inaction.

Leachate, the liquid formed as water percolates through landfills, often contains dangerous concentrations of toxic chemicals, including PFAS and other toxic chemicals.  While modern landfills are designed to capture leachate, sending raw leachate to WWTPs that are designed to treat sewage—not the toxic substances found in landfill leachate—is a serious threat to water quality.  These chemicals often pass through WWTPs untreated and into rivers and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean.

Requiring on-site treatment of leachate at landfills, where it is a concentrated and a controlled waste stream, is the most effective solution. Engineering treatment systems at the source is far more efficient and manageable than addressing the dispersed contaminants downstream in municipal WWTPs or drinking water plants.

Communities relying on these rivers as drinking water sources are left to bear the financial burden of removing contaminants to ensure safe drinking water. Alarmingly, in some cases, drinking water facilities may not even be aware that nearby WWTPs are receiving and discharging landfill leachate upstream from their intake.

DEC must end these outdated practices that jeopardize water quality and public health. To protect our rivers and drinking water, I urge DEC to move forward without delay in adopting new regulations mandating on-site treatment and disposal of leachate at landfills.

Additionally, to ensure meaningful public participation in this process a 90-day public comment period is needed for when the draft regulations are made public.

Name
Address