North East landfill selected for methane mitigation

MILLERTON — The Town of North East’s landfill will be one of the recipients of biofilters to reduce the amount of methane it leaks into the community.

Early in September, the Hudson Valley Regional Council was selected to receive $3 million through the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, which will benefit 14 different towns.

“That is being organized by the Hudson Valley Regional Council,” North East Town Supervisor Chris Kennan said. “They’re going to be helping not just our town, but a whole group of towns … which is to install mulch filters over the exhaust vents in town landfills.”

With this grant the Hudson Valley Regional Council can install biofilters which will decrease the amount of methane being released into the atmosphere from closed landfills within the Hudson Valley area, while also promoting the installation of solar arrays.

About 93% of emissions produced in the town of North East come from its landfill. This project will aim to reduce the amount of emissions the landfill leaks with natural filters of mulch and woodchips containing methane-eating bacteria.

“I’ll be surprised if it’s even this year. They have a lot of work to do. It’s not up to us to do that work,” Kennan said. “It is the Hudson Valley Regional Council that has to do the work. They have to decide on what the right technology is, what’s the right mulch, how much mulch.”