State Senator George Maziarz (R-Niagara County) has proposed a bill that would force DEC to comply with an 1987 law that requires the state to phase-out chemical-waste landfills --- or rather landfill. There's only one in New York Sate, and it happens to sit in Maziarz's district in Porter.

The '87 law gave DEC six months to draft a plan for redistribution of the chemical waste and eventual phasing out of the landfill. In '93 a plan was completed, but the State Supreme Court said it didn't meet the law's requirements. The Porter landfill is just miles from Love Canal in Niagara Falls, the infamous neighborhood that was used as toxic waste dumping ground for decades and caused widespread illness among residents.

Chemical Waste Management has recently applied to expand the Porter site. Here's what Maziarz had to say in the Ithaca Journal:

"The 1987 act mandated the DEC to produce a plan that would manage the state's needs for the next 20 years and phase out landfilling," Maziarz said. "Here we are 20 years later, and the DEC has defied the law on every provision. There is no plan, and there still is an active landfill. This is a critical issue today and for future generations."

DEC has said that it's still looking over a 2003 draft that apparantly went nowhere, and could have a new plan by the end of the year. The bill, which so far is a one-house deal, has a few add-ons to the '87 law: It would:

• Require the DEC to adopt a 20-year plan by 2009.
• Require that citizens and experts sit on DEC panels that approve the expansion or creation of hazardous-waste facilities.
• Adopt an "ecosystem-based" approach to waste management that considers the interplay of all factors in an ecosystem.
• Compel the DEC to work with businesses in reducing hazardous waste.
• Prohibit the DEC from approving site expansions until the 20-year plan is adopted.