Harbor Rock scraps plans for $100 million incinerator

New Jersey-based sustainable waste conversion company Harbor Rock has dropped its plans to build a $100 million incinerator in the Rensselaer, New York, port area, the Times Union reports. The plant would have incinerated dredged sludge and created building compounds on the site of a former BASF facility.

Harbor Rock told Rensselaer Common Council it would not pursue its plans after news coverage and expanding public opposition, Common Council President John DeFrancesco says.

Harbor Rock would have incinerated river-bottom sediment that the Army Corps of Engineers and other government agencies regularly must dispose of after they dredge commercial waterways like the Hudson River and port areas around New York City, the Times Union reports. Residents and environmental activists demonstrated against the proposed project.

In 2018, a $35 million composting facility that would have handled 150,000 tons of municipal garbage annually was proposed for the same 40-acre BASF site in the city’s southern industrial area but didn’t move forward.

Council will continue to pursue a local law that would effectively ban industrial incinerators from the city, DeFrancesco tells the Times Union. The proposed local law would ban incinerators from operating in the city’s industrial district. In addition, it would ban the disposal of waste materials, including biomass and river or harbor sludge and sediment, in the industrial district.

“The proposal by Harbor Rock to add incineration of waste materials to an already challenging environment is not acceptable and we commend and support the Common Council and Mayor for considering this local law as it reflects the will of the community,” Assemblyman John T. McDonald, D-Cohoes, and State Sen. Ashby, R-Schodack, wrote in a jointly signed letter to council members.