Report: New York's biggest landfill, which takes NYC trash, leaks methane up to 90 times the federal limit

New York's largest landfill, which takes in tens of thousands of tons of New York City's commercial trash every year, is leaking methane at levels as high as 90 times the federal limit despite repeated repairs, according to a new report from the advocacy group Full Circle Future, Gothamist reported Sunday. State lawmakers will take up landfill management at a public hearing in Lower Manhattan on Monday, Nov. 16.

What the report found

• Six of 16 landfills over federal limits: the analysis, released Thursday, used records from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and self-reported data from 16 of New York's largest landfills. Six, including Seneca Meadows in the Finger Lakes, surpassed federal limits, Gothamist reported.
• Same leaks, again and again: between February 2024 and June 2025, the DEC recorded methane discharges at the same spots at Seneca Meadows six times. The operator, Texas-based Waste Connections, was told each time to fix the leak and retest within 120 days, according to DEC correspondence cited in the report.
• Probably an undercount: the report's co-author told Gothamist that up to a third of the Seneca landfill isn't monitored.
• An "honor system": Full Circle Future argues the rules lean on operators' own sampling, which is required only every five years; landfills that stay under a threshold avoid stricter monitoring, Waste Dive reported. The group wants New York to adopt tougher standards like California's and Colorado's, plus aerial and wellhead monitoring.

The New York City connection

About 6% of the waste Seneca Meadows takes in each year, roughly 75,000 tons, comes from commercial sources in New York City, according to DEC records cited by Gothamist. The 400-acre landfill near Seneca Falls opened in 1983, is close to full and was originally set to close at the end of last year. Waste Connections has applied to expand it and keep it open through 2040; the site keeps operating on an expired permit while that application is under review. Waste Connections did not respond to Gothamist's requests for comment.

A DEC spokesperson told Gothamist that operators must "take appropriate measures and conduct re-monitoring" to resolve leaks. The DEC held a meeting in June on a possible update to its landfill gas rules, and staff expressed interest in rules like California's and Colorado's, Waste Dive reported. Separately, a state appeals panel recently dismissed parts of a lawsuit by Seneca Lake Guardian and neighbors over odors and the expansion, saying a challenge to the expansion was premature while DEC's review is pending.

Monday's hearing

The Assembly's Committee on Environmental Conservation, chaired by Deborah Glick, and the Legislative Commission on Solid Waste Management, chaired by Emily Gallagher, will hold a public hearing on municipal solid waste landfill management at 10 a.m. Monday in the Assembly Hearing Room on the 19th floor of 250 Broadway, according to the hearing notice. Oral testimony is by invitation only. The notice says the state's 2023 solid waste plan estimates as few as 16 years of landfill capacity may remain in New York, and that the hearing will look at landfill management and closure rules, including leachate testing. (Gothamist described the Nov. 16 hearing as hosted by the DEC; the official notice lists the Assembly panels.)

Gallagher, reacting to the report, told Gothamist the scale of the emissions is "an enormous problem." Methane is a greenhouse gas around 80 times more potent than carbon, according to the EPA figure cited by Gothamist. Full Circle Future's earlier modeling for New York is on its website.