By Rosemary Madonne
The Wheelabrator/WIN Waste trash incinerator in Hudson Falls, NY is a 34 year old, malfunctioning, polluting, horrendous facility! It is owned and operated by Wheelabrator. Many of us live quite close to it, so in 2021 we canvassed the surrounding neighborhood to discuss the facility and our concerns.
In the first half of 2024 Wheelabrator had numerous, very concerning malfunctions, such as 2+ hour smoke /white haze event, an extremely loud noise that lasted over an hour at 4:45am, and a huge burst of black smoke.. There were several other very disturbing incidents that year and into 2025. In late July 2024, Wheelabrator sent a Virtual Public Meeting notice regarding the Title V Application [air permit renewal] they were applying for. The notice only went out to very few people about 10 days before the August 8th date. That August 2024 online meeting was a bogus attempt to inform people of what they were applying for.
Since the village is a DEC-designated Disadvantaged Community, DEC required that Wheelabrator hold a Public Participation Meeting. Given the public outcry about the poorly publicized, online meeting in August, DEC required Wheelabrator to try again. The company held a well-attended in-person Public Participation meeting in April 2025. The local newspaper’s headline read, “Hudson Falls residents call for trash incinerator shutdown amid health risks.” Click for more information.
In October 2024, Tracy Frisch from Clean Air Action Network and I organized a first meeting at the Hudson Falls Library in October 2024, with 20+ people attending. Attendees were mostly people in my neighborhood who were also disgusted with all the malfunctions at the facility. We began meeting monthly at a local food establishment, and Breathe Free was formed. That October some of our members attended the village board meeting for the first time to state our concerns regarding Wheelabrator. Since then, we have been going to every monthly village board meeting.
We have been relentless. A few of us started meeting with the village attorney outside of the village board meetings. He advised us that the village trustees were on board with taking action on Wheelabrator and that we go out and talk with village residents and present our petition to them. Our request was that Wheelabrator continuously monitor all 18 pollutants and upgrade their facility’s pollution controls to what is now required for a new incinerator. We are grateful to Mike Ewall of Energy Justice Network for educating us about pollutants from incineration and guiding us on what to ask for.
In May 2025, Breathe Free held a community action meeting about the Wheelabrator Hudson Falls trash incinerator at the American Legion. Featured speaker Mike Ewall, who is an attorney, addressed about 75 local residents, including the mayor and several village trustees, about the need for a local law to rein in air pollution from the incinerator. Folks at the meeting expressed much enthusiasm for Mike’s recommendation. Mike ultimately helped to draft the local Clean Air Law.
At the suggestion of the village attorney, we circulated a petition requesting that the village board enact a law to protect the community from air pollution from the incinerator. We pounded the pavement for 3 months and obtained over 370 signatures on our petition. Just about everyone we spoke with agreed to sign. We presented our petition at the November board meeting, and at the December meeting the trustees went into executive session.
At the January 2026 village board meeting we got the wonderful news that the board had agreed to move forward with establishing a local law controlling air pollution in the village! We received a draft of the Hudson Falls Clean Air Law at the February meeting.
At the public hearing on this law held in March, the small room was standing room only. Many good points were made. Everyone who spoke supported the proposed law without reservation. The village board will vote on the law at its April meeting.
For more information, contact Rosemary Madonna at mamamia1362@gmail.com or 518-222-7388.
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