TRUMBULL COUNTY Officials go over new landfill plans

The landfill has not been put into operation.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
and STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County Health Department officials are reviewing new plans for a Lordstown landfill, less than a week after residents dumped objections on plans approved earlier this year.
The changes to Lafarge North America's application to dump construction and demolition debris at a property off Newton Falls-Bailey Road were largely in response to questions raised at a health board meeting last week.
An environmental expert hired by the village of Lordstown said she thinks a water retention pond planned to control runoff from the site would encroach on wetlands.
Maps presented by resident Lauraine Breda appear to show the same part of the property is in a 100-year flood plain and citing the dump there, she says, against the law.
Plans submitted by Lafarge on Monday show the retention pond outside the flood plain, said Frank Migliozzi, the health department's director of environmental health.
He said the plan for the landfill appeared to be in compliance with the law. "There are no issues here," he said.
The health board approved the landfill plans in September, but state law requires that permits be renewed every December. At the board meeting last week, the health board's lawyer said it is not clear what the ramifications would be if the permit is not approved by the end of the year.
Opponents are skeptical
Opponents had not had a chance Monday to fully review the new plans, but said they remain skeptical about the fast-track revisions.
"If they made all these errors when they had all the time in the world before and no one caught them, what kind of errors will there be when they are rushing it?" Breda said.
Randy Rudloff, an attorney for Lordstown Construction Recovery and its parent company, Lafarge North America, said the application was not really modified, but rather expanded, with new blueprints that were more precise than ones previously filed.
Rudloff said the questions arose because opponents were using an old aerial map that doesn't quite match the plan.
"My client decided rather than fight the issue, we would simply file the new prints, which show we are clearly not in the flood plain or the wetlands areas," he said.
Rudloff said the application filed for renewal is essentially the same one approved earlier by the board of health.
Since the site has not operated as a landfill, it was not possible for there to be any violations to make the permit void, he said.
Company officials want to provide all necessary information to ease concerns, he said.
"Where there some technical issues raised at the meeting last week? I suppose," Rudloff said.
"Does it make a difference? No, not really."