PRESTON – A 6:30 a.m. call Tuesday morning got Town of Preston Supervisor Peter C. Flanagan out of bed. A farmer in his township was on the other end, and described a terrible odor in the air.
The odor was still there when Flanagan arrived at the farm just off county Route 10 at 6:45 a.m. “It was not swamp gas, I can tell you that,” he said.
Flanagan told his story to county officials during a meeting of the Public Works Committee Thursday. Complaints of an awful smell and the possibility of it emitting from the Pharsalia Landfill have been phoned into the township and the Chenango County Public Works Department periodically since 2004. However, an investigation involving health and environmental conservation officials found no possible link to the nearby landfill and suggested swamp gas or fumes from outdoor fireplaces.
As a good faith measure, the DPW purchased and installed $5,000 flares to three gas vents at the dump. “We were told the smells were not coming from the landfill, but if they were, the flares would take care of it,” department Director Randy Gibbon said.
Flanagan said the odor is most obvious within the Fly Meadow Creek valley on cold mornings in the fall and winter. Some complaints have come from as far away as county Route 4 in Preston.
“They are not making it up. And they are kind of upset that people think they are crack pots,” Flanagan said. “What is it? We can’t say it’s nothing. Maybe there’s nothing we can do about it. But, it’s silly for us to say we don’t have any smells.”
During a discussion of the situation, committee members suggested putting more flares in place. “What would it hurt?” Supervisor Homer Smith, D-McDonough, asked.
Flanagan suggested asking the Town of Pharsalia to cover the cost of installing additional flares. Pharsalia has received nearly $1 million in benefits since the facility was sited there in the early 1990s. In a one-time windfall this year, it will receive an extra $28,000 due to revenues collected from demolition and excavation refuse from the New York State Veterans’ Home in Oxford.
“Preston and Plymouth got the traffic and now the smell, and Pharsalia got the money,” Flanagan said. “The people of Preston have been suffering from whatever ill effects the smell from the nearby landfill gives off.”
Gibbon assured the committee that employees at the landfill have not suffered any ill affects from their jobs. The area was tested and no health issues have been found.
Town of Smyrna Supervisor James Bays said the situation was a quality of life issue and needed rectifying, whether with further study or by installing more flares. “Since we have a surplus in revenue this year, we should ask Pharsalia to help us out,” he said.
A motion passed unanimously directed Gibbon to use $5,000 in revenues from landfill operations this year to purchase extra flares as well as review the situation with the appropriate health officials again. Supervisor James McNeil, D-City of Norwich, suggested finding experts to determine the source of the sulfide gas and what the weather/topographical conditions need to be in order to carry it down the valley.