NEGLEY County OKs landfill, but with conditions

Two of the conditions involve protection of residential water wells.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
NEGLEY -- A Youngstown company has conditional approval to install a construction and demolition debris landfill just north of this community.
The Columbiana County Health Board voted unanimously Monday to grant a permit to Penn-Ohio Recycling Inc., provided the firm meets certain conditions.
Those include the company's willingness to post a bond to cover the cost of installing municipal water to Negley should the landfill runoff ruin the water wells used by the community's nearly 150 residents, board president Robert Durbin explained this morning.
Durbin said the amount of bond required to cover that cost has yet to be determined.
Well quality: The other condition requires Penn-Ohio to test the quality of residential wells within a 3,000-foot radius of the landfill site, which should cover all the wells in Negley.
The testing must be done before the landfill begins operation, which could be sometime this fall. Future testing must be done by the company whenever the health board requires it, Durbin said.
The six other conditions set forth by the health board require improvements to a system for collecting liquid runoff from the site.
Now that the health board has tentatively agreed to issue a permit, it's up to Penn-Ohio to decide whether it will abide by the conditions set forth. If the company refuses, then the permit won't be issued, Durbin said.
Guy Fragle, president and co-owner of Penn-Ohio Recycling, could not be reached to comment.
Residents' concerns: In requiring a bond and well water testing, health board members were mindful of concerns expressed by Negley residents about the landfill, Durbin said.
Residents have told county officials they fear the facility will ruin their well water.
"We still don't think it's a good site," landfill opponent William Swagger of Negley said.
"I'm not going to be disappointed until it's over," Swagger added, noting that Penn-Ohio must still meet the health board's conditions before it begins operating.
The company plans to build the dump on a nearly 90-acre partly wooded site off state Route 154.
Construction and demolition debris would be accepted by truck from the greater Youngstown area and from the East Coast.
The site eventually could receive material from railroad cars delivered on the former Youngstown & amp; Southern Railway, now known as the Central Columbiana & amp; Pennsylvania Railway, whose tracks run near the site.