(The Associated Press circulated the following story on May 29.)
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The state Thursday sued three companies, seeking the removal of as much as 40 million pounds of garbage that has been stalled for months in a city rail yard near a residential neighborhood.
The 400 containers of downstate trash and construction debris arrived by train at the SK Rail Yard in December and was to have been transferred by truck to a Niagara County landfill.
However, financial problems at New York City-based Chem-Rail Logistics have left the trash to blow around, foul the air and attract flies and other pests to the neighborhood, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office said.
Spitzer and state Environmental Conservation Commissioner Erin Crotty said Chem-Rail, Express Inter-Modal, which owns the yard, and Canadian Pacific Railway Co., which owns the tracks, have essentially been operating a transfer station without any required state permits.
The lawsuit in Erie County Supreme Court claims the companies have created a public nuisance and seeks a court order compelling them to remove the trash.
“It is unconscionable that the citizens of Buffalo have had to live with the odor and pest problems caused by the irresponsible actions of these three companies,” Spitzer said.
A spokeswoman for Calgary, Alberta-based Canadian Pacific said she was not familiar with the suit and that the company generally does not comment on pending litigation. A call to Chem-Rail was not immediately returned and a representative of Express Inter-Modal could not be reached for comment.