Urgent: Assembly Vote Today

Call your Assembly Person Now!

We have an opportunity to kill the proposed garbage burning facility in Romulus, NY, if we act swiftly. There are bills proposed ( S8109b/A11214) which, if passed in the Assembly and the Senate, then signed by Governor Cuomo, would prohibit garbage incineration in the Finger Lakes.


As always, thank you for being a part of this amazing community and doing your part to keep the Finger Lakes beautiful.


Sample Letter / Call Script Ideas

Dear Governor Cuomo and Members of the State Senate and Assembly,

On behalf of business owners in the Finger Lakes Region and across New York State, we write you today to express our vehement opposition to a dangerous proposal to build a trash burning facility in the heart of the Finger Lakes and urge you to pass and sign Senate bill 8109 introduced by Senator Helming and same as Assembly bill A11214 introduced by Assemblymember Cusick.

It is imperative that the Helming/Cusick bill pass both houses of the Legislature before the Legislature adjourns in the coming days. The mere threat of the incinerator has already impacted the Finger Lakes region. The region already receives roughly half of all landfilled waste from throughout the state. Adding an incinerator to the existing landfills will further damage the Finger Lakes.

This project is not compatible with current or future economic development goals of the region, or with New York State’s renewable energy standard. New York State law does not recognize burning garbage as a form of renewable energy and the State of New York has adopted aggressive renewable energy goals. The Circular enerG trash incinerator will not help New York State meet these goals.

The wine, craft beverage, agriculture, and agri-tourism industry is driving job creation and economic growth in the Finger Lakes, which is home to hundreds of family vineyards and wineries, generates $2.9 billion in economic activity and supports 60,000 jobs in the Finger Lakes alone. The Finger Lakes has recently become a nationally recognized tourist destination that now attracts millions of visitors annually to its local wineries, breweries, restaurants, farms and other tourist attractions, with businesses located on and around Seneca Lake at the center of this activity. Visitors are attracted to the natural beauty and rural, unindustrialized, character of the Seneca Lake communities and the surrounding area. The proposed trash burning facility’s emissions, truck and rail activity, and visible smoke stack will negatively impact Seneca, Ontario, Tompkins, Yates, Cayuga, and Schuyler Counties, clearly making this a regional threat.

Members of the Seneca Lake Guardian Business Coalition are proponents of economic development that is compatible with the growing wine and tourism industry on which so many of us rely. We are counting on you to make the choice to promote programs geared toward reducing waste, recycling and composting and generating sustainable, truly renewable energy like solar and wind that support regional economic development goals without compromising the clean air, soil, and water upon which we depend over allowing the Finger Lakes to become the industrialized trash capitol of New York State.