With the Town Board and local residents vehemently opposed to a county landfill at two possible Plattekill locations mentioned in a report commissioned by the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA), a representative of Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger explained to the board at its April 19 meeting why the county would like to build a solar installation at one of the sites.

Amanda LaValle, a 15-year county employee who was appointed on February 7 by Metzger to fill a vacant position as a Deputy County Executive, made the pitch to have a solar project at the Hertel Landfill in the town.

LaValle began working for the county in 2008 as its first Department of Environment Coordinator where she coordinated environmental efforts across the county’s departments. Subsequently, she served as a deputy director of planning.

LaValle said she has been working on plans for a solar array at the 73.9-acre Hertel Landfill for over a year and said the solar project on the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Superfund site should be viewed separately from the controversial UCRRA county landfill site proposed there.

“Although these are very different issues, there’s a little bit of overlap because of how it’s come out in the media,” she said. “So I want you to kind of think with fresh eyes about what I’m going to speak about, which is a solar array on the landfill.”

On February 14, the Ulster County Legislature unanimously adopted a resolution to enter into a development agreement with AC Power Development Co. to study the feasibility of having a solar installation at the Hertel site.

If the project is feasible, the county could acquire the property by foreclosing on it. The current owners owe over $206,000 in back taxes and the county has been unable to contact any owners, successors or other interested parties about it, according to the resolution.

LaValle said the county would like to build a solar project similar to the one it erected on a municipal solid waste landfill in the Town of Ulster behind the Hudson Valley Mall.

“It’s producing clean energy for the community,” she said of the Town of Ulster project. “On a site where you’re constrained and you can’t really do anything else and you have to maintain it, we generally think that is a good place to put solar. It’s not cutting down a forest.”

LaValle said that AC Power would need to get site plan and zoning approvals for the project from the Town of Plattekill to move ahead.

LaValle said the county must also negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the EPA that would release the lien the agency has on the property owner.

“EPA generally wants to encourage solar as a beneficial reuse on a property because this would be a community solar arrangement where community members could subscribe to the solar project and receive a 10 percent discount on their bill if they choose to do so,” LaValle said. “The EPA likes to see that done. However, their top priority is protecting human health from a release (at the landfill).”

Town Councilman Dean DePew Sr. asked LaValle to email a copy of the agreement with AC Power to Supervisor Jennifer Salemo and to inform the town of any movement on the project.