By Forum Staff
Governor Kathy Hochul has signed into law Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar and State Sen. Joe Addabbo’s bill which requires waste transported by rail to be covered with hard tarping to curb dangerous spillage and the emission of noxious gasses.
Rajkumar and Addabbo took the lead on the bill, which had languished in the Legislature for 13 years, and both passed it unanimously through their respective chambers with bipartisan support. Constituents shared stories of unbearable odors and toxic emissions from waste on trains at all hours. One constituent living along rail tracks revealed he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Administrators at Christ the King Regional High School reported students unable to concentrate due to headaches and nausea from nearby waste by rail.
According to Rajkumar and Addabbo, the Waste by Rail industry continues to grow exponentially. Waste by rail is a burgeoning method of waste management that has increased 35 percent since 2020. With the expansion of this industry, rails in Rajkumar’s district have become a major thoroughfare for waste from Long Island. This waste is transported long distances upstate to available landfills, often in containers uncovered or covered only by a porous mesh tarp. The waste produces noxious gas,
File Photo
Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar
leachate, spilloff, and odors in the neighborhoods surrounding tracks. Sometimes the trains park by homes for hours or days, subjecting residents to unbearable fumes for long periods of time.
Odors and emissions from waste by rail are affecting New Yorkers statewide: in the Saratoga
County town of Mechanicville, residents experience “trash train days” where they cannot go outside due to the smell from waste trains idling. Assemblywoman Jennifer Lunsford, a co-sponsor of the bill who represents Monroe County, said emissions from waste by rail was the number one complaint from her constituents. She routinely fields 50 to 70 complaints per week.
Rajkumar and Addabbo recently hosted a celebration with Community Board 5 and Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions (CURES), a local group that has fought for years to end environmental and health hazards caused by rail in Queens.
“It is with our deepest gratitude that we express our appreciation to both Assemblywoman Rajkumar and Senator Addabbo on their monumental accomplishment on getting state legislation passed to containerize waste in rail cars. The victory we’re celebrating today belongs to them, it belongs to the residents, the civics, and Community Board 5,” CURES Chairwoman Mary Parisen Lavelle said.
