ALTHOUGH THE SEQRA REVIEW OF THE PROPOSED MODIFICATION OF A LANDFILL WAS PROPERLY DONE, SUPREME COURT SHOULD NOT HAVE DETERMINED THAT NEARBY RESIDENTS DID NOT HAVE STANDING TO CONTEST THE RULING (THIRD DEPT).

Although the Third Department determined the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) had properly conducted its State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) review of the proposed modification of a landfill, the petition by nearby residents should not have been denied on the ground that the petitioners did not have standing to contest the DEC ruling:

… [A]t least some of the petitioners will suffer distinct environmental harm under the circumstances presented in these proceedings. For instance, although one might expect the visual impact of the landfill expansion to be widespread, DEC specifically found that the impact would be limited and that the areas where the individual petitioners live and/or maintain recreation facilities would be among the few having a “generally unobstructed” view of the landfill. Many of the individual petitioners confirmed that they can see the landfill from their residences, explained how they are personally impacted by the sights, sounds, smells and dust generated by operations there, and further articulated how those impacts will worsen if the landfill expansion goes forward … . Moreover, the Halfmoon petitioners alleged that those impacts will impair the use and enjoyment of Halfmoon’s public park, trails and boat launches across the river, while one of the individual Halfmoon petitioners described how she was intimately involved in the development of a trail system and boat launch along the river and was similarly concerned by those impacts … . Standing rules are not to be applied in a manner so restrictive that agency actions are insulated from judicial review and, in our view, the foregoing was sufficient to establish that at least some of the petitioners in each proceeding will suffer environmental impacts different from those experienced by the general public so as to afford standing to sue … . Matter of Town of Waterford v New York State Dept. of Envtl. Conservation, 2020 NY Slip Op 06180, Third Dept 10-29-20