Diane Valden reports in The Columbia Paper that a few Ancram residents are upset about a septage disposal site in the town, while an official with the site says they are misinformed. Flood’s Spraying and Sanitation Service, a Dutchess County-based business based, has a DEC-issued registration to legally spread 804,400 gallons of septage – excrement and other waste material contained in or removed from a septic tank – on 55 acres off Sawchuk Road in Ancram. Neighbors there have complained about the operation to the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Ancram’s Conservation Advisory Council. The residents have a number of complaints, from smells and truck noise, to environmental harms. Leo Flood, the owner, says the issue is an “old resentment” and “motivated by money.... “Why would I contaminate my own land?” The company has three prior violations from the DEC between March 1991 ($2,000 and an order to follow a schedule of compliance) and June 2008 for a violation citing the operation for applying septic waste to frozen ground and imposing a $3,000 fine. Flood says, “a violation is equivalent to traffic ticket” adding, “it would be different if we were discharging nuclear waste into a mine shaft.” Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.