Honorable Erin Crotty
Commissioner
New York Department of Environmental Conservation
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233

Dear Commissioner Crotty,

I write to express my concerns about 30 "abandoned landfills" in Tompkins County that may pose serious environmental and public health risks. Please add these sites to the "registry qualifying category" of the Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Site Registry and take action to investigate and remediate any hazards that the sites may pose.

These classic open dumps were identified by Tompkins County authorities, but reportedly have not been cleaned up or disclosed to your agency as specified by law. The dumps are neither designed, constructed nor maintained to hold their contents securely and reportedly contain a variety of wastes, including utility fly ash, rusted barrels, and, possibly, waste oil. Some of the landfills have buildings on top of them or threaten drinking water sources. In particular, hundreds of citizens live on top of the contaminated former City of Ithaca dump in Southwest Area, which should be your agency's top priority for action.

According to §27-1303 of New York's 1979 Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites Law, "Each county shall, for the purpose of locating inactive hazardous waste disposal sites, survey its jurisdiction to determine the existence and location of suspected inactive hazardous waste disposal sites and shall, within four months of the effective date of this title, submit a report to the department (of Environmental Conservation) describing the location of each such suspected site and the reasons for such suspicion."

In addition, " Each county shall review the information concerning such county in the registry established pursuant to section 27-1305 of this article and shall, on or before September first, nineteen hundred eighty, and annually thereafter on the first day of September of each succeeding year, provide the department with any information which might correct or supplement the information in such registry with respect to suspected inactive hazardous waste disposal sites within the jurisdiction of such county."

Given that only two of the 30 sites (Landstrom, Cornell Dump) have ever been listed in the Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Site Registry, we request that your agency assume full responsibility for: a) disclosure of all past disposal practices associated with these dumps, b) comprehensive site investigations, including impacts on Cayuga Lake and its tributaries, as well as drinking water drawn from those sources and c) clean-up of any hazards posed by the dumps.

Please note that multiple rusted 55 gallons barrels clearly protrude from the side of the former City of Ithaca dump in Southwest Area near residential trailers and a tributary to Cayuga Lake. An interim remedial measure should be undertaken without delay to remove those barrels.

Yours truly,