Living next to a former landfill has its risks - like learning that your home has a methane pocket growing under it, and that there are elevated levels of volatile organic compounds in the air.

Two Irondequoit homes on Timrod Road, next to a former city dump, are dealing with that very situation. And those residents may find that an ongoing lawsuit could directly affect them.

The former dump's been the focus of a legal battle between a developer, Lighthouse Pointe Property Association, and the state. The developer wants to include the vast majority of the dump property, located along the banks of the Genesee River near the O'Rourke Bridge, in a 47-acre mixed-use development.

The developer applied to have the property admitted into the state's Brownfield Cleanup Program, but the request was denied. The developer sued, and the case is now before the state's highest court.

Irondequoit Supervisor Mary Ellen Heyman says that the application should be approved, and that the state has approved similar projects in the past.

The state defines a brownfield as "any real property, the redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a contaminant."

The developer has argued that plans for redevelopment have been complicated by the fact that the land is a former city dump.

Alan Knauf, an environmental attorney who's representing the developers, says that the recently discovered contamination in the homes could help the developer's case, "since we have argued that methane is a hazardous substance since it is explosive."