Steuben County officials are currently looking into a plan that would allow Marcellus shale gas drilling companies to dump their "cuttings" in the county landfill. It's a similar proposal to one in a neighboring county that has many people enraged. Our Vince Slomsky tells us about the proposal and what it could do for the county.

STEUBEN COUNTY, N.Y. -- The Steuben County landfill in Bath may soon allow Marcellus shale gas drilling cuttings from Pennsylvania to be dumped at the site. A study is currently underway to see if it's safe.

"Right now, we're just talking about relatively small amounts we would bring in, if we brought it in. We want to be sure of ourselves though," said Steuben County public works commissioner Vince Spagnoletti.

If this sounds familiar, it's because the Chemung County landfill just recently started allowing the rocks, soil and debris known as the cuttings at their site. Residents there were upset with the plan and say the materials contain radioactive chemicals. But Spagnoletti says so far, he doesn't think that's the case.

"It appears that it's low level, but we're concerned what about long term. What's going to happen to the leachate, the liquid that comes out of our landfill, how's it going to affect that?" Spagnoletti asked.

Much like the decision made in Chemung County, allowing the waste to be dumped in Steuben would have a lot to do with the revenue it may bring in.

"Is it revenue driven? Yes. We look for enough money to pay for this landfill so we don't have to go to the taxpayers for it," Spagnoletti said.

But one thing Spagnoletti wants to be clear about is that the proposal is just an idea right now and every step will be taken to make sure it won't have any negative impacts.

"Very slowly, very carefully, we don't want to hurry into a mistake," Spagnoletti said.

The study should take a couple of months to complete and depending on the outcome, it could be proposed to legislators to vote on.

Currently, the landfill operates at around 100,000 tons per year.

Spagnoletti says bringing in around 10,000 tons per year of the drill cuttings could raise around $300,000 to the operational budget of the landfill.