WOLCOTT, N.Y. (WHEC) — Neighbors of a proposed Wayne county composting facility for New York City sewage sludge vowed to oppose the project and urged local leaders to reject it.

“Upstate New York has become New York City’s dumping ground,” Steve Wickman of Sodus said, joining a chorus of critics in Wolcott. “Ontario County, Monroe County, Seneca County, Utica County Seneca County. Day after day after day after day all day long, bringing garbage up here, and when does it stop?”

On March 9, representatives of Tully Environmental of Flushing were scheduled to go back before the town board in Butler, requesting a permit to develop an almost 250,000 square-foot composting center on a longtime gravel pit on Route 89 to process municipal sewage sludge brought up from New York City.

The prospect outraged some families who lived nearby, like Ralph Deon, who approached News10NBC crew and proposed, “I’ve got a good idea. Go right over to Albany and put it in Cuomo’s living room and tell me how that goes over for him.”

For an idea of what the facility might be like, some Butler town leader and area residents visited a sludge composting facility already in place in Tremont, Pennsylvania.

The experience got dim reviews from locals like Wolcott Wastewater Superintendent Tom Mettler who brought his own experience with wastewater to bear.   

“I did visit the site in Pennsylvania that they have, and the odors were absolutely horrid,” Mettler said. "You can smell the stuff for miles."

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Teresa Thompson started this petition to The Butler Town Board