Albuquerque having difficulty locating transfer station

The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has run into NIMBY (not in my back yard) problems in an effort to build a new solid waste transfer station.

According to an online report from KRQE-TV, the city’s government announced in early April 2016 that it is withdrawing a previously requested zoning change for the transfer station in the North Valley neighborhood.

The city wants to locate the transfer station on a 22-acre parcel of land. When nearby residents learned, however, that inbound trucks would drop off loads of trash and outbound tractor-trailers would take them to a landfill several miles away, they objected to the prospect of “increased traffic, pollution, odor and littering,” according to KRQE.

An online report by the Albuquerque Journal says that while the city has withdrawn the zoning request, it “will still pursue the project under the zoning already in place, which allows manufacturing and similar uses.”

Albuquerque’s operations officer is quoted is saying that the transfer station can save the city some $2.5 million to $4.5 million each year in reduced transportation costs if fewer trucks head directly to the landfill.