Battaglia Waste Site

Our team performed an Environmental Site Assessment in support of a community initiative to create a land trust from an abandoned dumpsite. Located in an environmental justice area in the Seneca-Babcock neighborhood the City of Buffalo, the once truck junkyard was converted to a construction and demolition transfer, crushing and recycling operation which negatively impacted the health and well being of immediately adjacent residents located directly downwind. After repeated violations and lapses of its operating permits, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation forced the facility to close and filed criminal charges. The matter is now in a sentencing stage. The community has initiated work on a land trust and is working with the NYS Attorney General’s office to have the court assign the land to the trust as the part of the sentence penalty. Our team is working closely with the community and outside counsel to manage remaining environmental conditions at the site.