Take Action

Governor Hochul and DEC: Go Back to the Drawing Board on Landfill Leachate Regulations

Stop Toxic Garbage Water From Polluting New York’s Rivers, Lakes, Drinking Water Supplies, and Environment

Landfill “garbage water”, known as leachate, is a toxic liquid waste stream created when rainwater moves through everything we throw away that ends up in a landfill. It contains PFAS, heavy metals, pesticides and thousands of other chemicals—including contaminants that have been banned or phased out because of their risks to human health and the environment, yet continue to appear in leachate from decades-old waste.

Garbage water is poison for our waterways. Not a drop of untreated leachate belongs in the rivers and lakes that communities depend on for drinking water.

New York River Watch’s statewide report found that between 2019 and 2023, more than half a billion gallons (532,300,000) of landfill leachate were sent each year from New York and out-of-state landfills to municipal sewage treatment plants.  These facilities are designed to treat human sewage—not the complex mixture of chemicals found in landfill leachate. Nearly one-third of this leachate—approximately 167 million gallons—ended up in rivers and lakes officially designated as drinking water sources, including the Hudson River, Mohawk River, Niagara River, and Lake Ontario.

After more than three years of waiting for these long-promised regulations, DEC released a proposal on July 1, 2026 that still allows these toxic contaminants to be released into our waters.

New York has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get this right. DEC must bring together the best scientific, engineering, and public health expertise to create a plan that truly protects our water, communities, and environment. The state must not create a system that shifts the costs and consequences of toxic pollution onto communities, and the landfills that profit from managing this waste must be held accountable.

Join us in urging Governor Hochul and DEC to go back to the drawing board and develop regulations that require complete and effective treatment of this toxic waste stream. The regulation as currently drafted is inadequate—it’s a half measure that does not address the problem.

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.”

Public Comment on Proposed Landfill Leachate Regulations Part 360 series: Governor Hochul and DEC Must Strengthen Protections for New York’s Waters, Drinking Water, and the Environment.

Dear Governor Hochul and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation,


After more than three years of waiting for long-promised regulations governing landfill leachate—the toxic “garbage water” created when rainwater moves through waste in landfills—this proposed rule falls far short of what New Yorkers need. We deserve regulations that protect drinking water, communities, and the environment—not a system that allows contamination to continue moving downstream.


New York River Watch’s statewide report found that between 2019 and 2023, more than half a billion gallons (532,300,000) of landfill leachate were sent each year from New York and out-of-state landfills to municipal sewage treatment plants. Nearly one-third of that leachate—approximately 167 million gallons—entered rivers and lakes officially designated as drinking water sources that include the Hudson River, Mohawk River, Niagara River, Lake Ontario. Leachate was also discharged into waters upstream of drinking water sources, including the New York City drinking supply.


Garbage water is toxic. It contains PFAS, heavy metals, pesticides and thousands of other chemicals, including contaminants that have been banned or phased out because of their risks to human health and the environment. Not a drop of untreated leachate belongs in the rivers and lakes that communities depend on for drinking water.


DEC must go back to the drawing board and strengthen this proposal. The final regulations must:


  • Provide meaningful time for public review. 60 days is not enough for regulations that will shape landfill treatment, drinking water protection, and environmental justice for decades. DEC should extend the public comment period by 30 days, through October 9, and use public input to revise and strengthen the proposal.

  • Make clear how DEC will protect communities already burdened by pollution. As written, the proposal creates an entirely new class of infrastructure—Leachate Treatment Facilities—that DEC expects will become a growing new industry, yet it fails to clarify how the state will evaluate environmental justice and cumulative impacts.

  • Include routine updates to keep pace with science. DEC has taken a step forward by addressing a broad range of contaminants, but treatment standards must go further. Regulations should require routine review of treatment technologies, drinking water standards, and the “Expanded Parameter List” so new contaminants and evolving science are incorporated over time. DEC should address PFAS as a class and require a “mass balance approach” to verify that PFAS are safely and effectively removed.

  • Include all landfills that continue to generate leachate. The proposed regulations exclude certain landfills, including inactive landfills, even though decades-old waste continues to produce leachate and threaten water quality.

  • Ensure any new leachate treatment system protects communities, not private interests. Treatment must be affordable and accessible for all landfills that generate leachate—not structured in a way that limits access.

  • Ensure that treatment waste is safely managed. Removing contaminants from leachate does not eliminate them—it concentrates them. DEC must establish clear standards and prohibit the use of treatment waste as landfill cover.

  • Take steps to break the permanent cycle of pollution management. New York cannot create a system that simply moves toxic chemicals from landfills to treatment facilities back to landfills and manage them indefinitely. Governor Hochul must also address the problem upstream by advancing policies that eliminate the production and use of harmful chemicals that ultimately become landfill waste. The goal must be to move toward treatment approaches that destroy or permanently eliminate toxic chemicals whenever possible—not to simply capture and relocate them.

  • Require accountability and transparency. DEC must publish annual treatment data for public review and modernize reporting requirements to ensure all treatment information is digital, transparent, and publicly accessible.

New York has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get this right. DEC must bring together the best scientific, engineering, and public health expertise to create a plan that truly protects our water, communities, and environment. The state must not create a system that shifts the costs and consequences of toxic pollution onto communities, and the landfills that profit from managing this waste must be held accountable.


Thank you for considering these comments.

Name
Address