Oozing Out of the SWMP

The NY Daily News is reporting today that the City Council is slated to vote on the mayor's SWMP next Wednesday. Negotiations are ongoing and there's still a possibility that the vote will be postponed. The question of what to do with the Manhattan transfer facilities is still the major sticking point.

We believe that the Council will pass the plan as is, leaving the issue of the legality of the controversial sites up to the courts. In this way the Speaker will have delivered for the mayor on a key policy and the failure of the siting, if that's what transpires, will be on someone else's shoulders. Key council members have told us that they believe that the two West Side transfer stations will be killed because they will require state legislative approval (the Hudson River Park Conservancy issue), something that's just not going to happen.

If this all goes according to this scenario, the resolution of the commercial waste problem will, once again, be left unresolved. Of course, the use of commercial food waste disposers would go along way toward mooting the necessity of 59th Street altogether. We're still hopeful that the Council will move in this direction in the Fall.