Brookhaven landfill to stay open another 2 years, Town Supervisor Dan Panico

The Brookhaven landfill will remain open at least two years longer than previously expected, giving town officials additional time to find different ways of disposing of and recycling ash from incineration plants, Supervisor Dan Panico told Newsday.

In an interview Friday, Panico said the town plans to keep the landfill open until 2027 or early 2028 to accept ash from New Jersey-based Covanta’s incinerator in Westbury. The town had hoped to close the landfill as soon as 2025.

The town will keep its current plan to start shutting down the dump at the end of this year, when it will stop accepting construction and demolition debris, Panico said. Construction waste constitutes about 65% of trash stored at the landfill. The remaining 35% is ash.

Panico’s predecessor, Edward Romaine, now Suffolk County executive, said last March at a Stony Brook University waste management symposium the landfill would close in 2025 or 2026.

Panico, who on Monday will be sworn into his first four-year term after more than a decade as a town councilman, said the change will allow time for Covanta to find alternate locations to dispose of ash. Brookhaven and Babylon towns operate the only ash landfills on Long Island.

“We will take ash through the year 2027 … into 2028, potentially,” Panico said during an hourlong interview in his Town Hall office. Shutting down the landfill next year would have a “cataclysmic effect” on the local economy because Long Island lacks alternative dumping locations, he said.

“I think at times when people talk about abruptly closing the landfill … it’s not so easy,” Panico said, citing the costs of permanently shutting down the facility.

Panico said the town would seek an extension of the landfill’s operating permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The current permit, issued on July 12, 2021, will expire on July 11, 2026, DEC officials said last year.

The landfill has been cited in recent years by federal and state authorities for violations of odor and emissions control regulations.

Community advocates have also called on the state attorney general to launch a probe into ash dumped at the Brookhaven landfill, citing a Newsday investigation that found that Long Island’s leading waste incinerator, Covanta, couldn’t be sure that ash it was dumping there wasn’t hazardous.

Research has shown that ash can be turned into building materials such as bricks, Panico said, citing studies by Stony Brook University. Covanta has a pilot program looking at the technology, the company has said.

Panico said he supports expanded use of railroads to take trash off Long Island, saying it would reduce pressure on Long Island highway traffic. 

“Nothing has changed per se,” he said, referring to the overall landfill closure plan. “Giving those three years of ash, it’s a realistic view that gives us time for more rail to come on [and] for the DEC to potentially find better uses … for adaptive reuse of that [ash] material. It is a responsible and pragmatic approach to closing the landfill.”

Check back for updates on this developing story.