But for the past several years, it seemed as though the olfactory abuse might soon be ending: According to state permitting, the landfill was set to close at the end of 2025.
Now, however, the landfill’s owner, the Texas-based Waste Connections, has indicated in filings with the state that it wants approval to fill a 47-acre “valley” between two of the site’s gigantic mounds — enough to fill MetLife Stadium 10 times, at least — a project it estimates would last until 2040.
That project would raise the peak of Seneca Meadows by about 70 feet — roughly to the height of a 35-story building — making it one of the tallest man-made structures in upstate New York and an odoriferous outlier in the largely bucolic Finger Lakes region.
Residents in and around Seneca Falls have long complained about a bevy of problems related to the site, including truck traffic, choking dust and the potential for landfill runoff — known as leachate — to contaminate drinking water.
Organizations:
MetLife
Locations:
Texas, Seneca Meadows, New York, Seneca