Capital Region Solid Waste Management Consortium - Solid Waste Management Facility (A regional solid waste disposal facility serving Capital District communities)

Project History

Since 1981, the Capital Region Solid Waste Management Partnership (the “Partnership”), formerly known as ANSWERS, has operated a regional solid waste system serving communities in the ANSWERS Wasteshed. Currently, with a combined population of approximately 206,000 people, these communities include:

In addition to the above, the landfill also provides capacity for commercial, institutional and governmentally-generated waste from a multi-county area.

In 2005, approximately 360,785 tons of solid waste was managed by the Partnership for the Wasteshed. The Partnership's landfill is the only solid waste disposal facility remaining within the Wasteshed. The Rapp Road Landfill is the only facility available to service the Partnership.

The City of Albany has committed to act as the lead municipality to ensure continued solid waste disposal capacity for the members of the Wasteshed. The City of Albany has functioned as the host community for the Wasteshed for the past 20 years.The Capital Region Solid Waste Management Partnership undertook, with other members of the Wasteshed, the preparation of a Solid Waste Management Plan (“SWMP”). The SWMP concluded that a new long-term landfill needed to be developed to serve the Wasteshed.

The SWMP delineated the process to be used in identifying a site for its new long-term landfill. The selection process was an extensive, multi-phased, criteria-based siting study. The criteria were identified in the SWMP, after public review, and were largely driven by requirements in the NYSDEC's regulations, as well as by environmental and planning concerns. As a result of the extensive siting studies, Site C-2 in the Town of Coeymans was selected as the preferred site for the landfill. For additional information on the Long Range Landfill Siting Process, please see the attached Information Bulletin.

The Capital Region Solid Waste Management Partnership has evaluated Site C-2 and has found regulated wetland areas that will require extensive mitigation to offset their potential loss. The mitigation required will take an extended period of time to be designed and implemented. As a result, in order to provide continued service to the region, the expansion of the Rapp Road facility is necessary.