Dear Neighbors,
The Winters Rail Terminal is an important part of the proposed solution to the solid waste crisis facing Long Island with the closure of the Brookhaven landfill. This rail project, which would be located in an industrial area of Yaphank, is subject to review by the Surface Transportation Board (STB), a federal agency that oversees all rail projects in the country. I write to you today to make a promise to you – Winters Bros. is fully committed to supporting a transparent public process to ensure everyone’s voice is heard by working with the STB, Town of Brookhaven and all other local entities that will play a role.
My family’s company, Winters Bros. Waste Systems, has been serving Long Island since 1950. Over the past 70 years, our organization has grown with Long Island and faced environmental challenges head-on with your support. Today, we face our biggest solid waste challenge yet as we prepare for the closure of the Brookhaven landfill. The town made the decision to close the landfill in response to community concerns and in favor of the environment. Long Island’s 2.8 million residents create 13 million pounds of solid waste daily. With the closure of the landfill, a large portion of this waste will have nowhere to go. My late brother, Joe, had a vision: service solid waste transportation needs by freight train while protecting the environment and boosting our economy.
If we were to stick with the status quo and continue to serve our waste needs by truck after the closing of the landfill, its estimated that 60,000 additional trucks would be needed annually. If you take the Long Island Expressway to work every day, you know that traffic is already insufferable on the island. For each freight railcar moving waste, five trucks are taken off the road. In addition to reducing the traffic these additional trucks would create, by eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the trucks, air quality will be drastically improved along these major corridors.
Aside from the solid waste element of the rail terminal, the project includes 1.4 million square feet of warehousing space that will allow goods to be shipped to and from Long Island at a pace never seen before while also creating 3,600 jobs for the region, half of which will be permanent. Its forward thinking like this that is necessary to keep Long Island’s economy competitive with surrounding regions.
While the merits of this rail project are clear, I would like to reinforce the fact that we are all in this together. We want to hear
from you to help make this rail project the best it can be for Long Island. I implore you to continue to visit our website to
learn more about the project and sign up for our email newsletter, which will notify subscribers of chances to participate in the
STB process.
Sincerely,
Jimmy Winters
Chief Executive Officer
Winters Bros. Waste Systems