LANDFILL Residents seek damages in suit against company over pollution

An attorney said more people interested in the lawsuit come forward daily.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A group of residents is asking a judge to order a Martin Luther King Avenue landfill to stop the facility from emitting pollutants onto their property and to award damages.
The class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court has been assigned to Judge John M. Stuard.
It lists 13 plaintiffs, but Atty. David Dubin of Detroit, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, said more than 300 citizens back the suit. "There are more every day," he said.
The suit lists Warren Hills, the company that manages the landfill, Warren Recycling Inc., Waste Transfer Systems, the property owner, all of Martin Luther King; and T & amp;G Enterprises of Mahoning Avenue, the company that owned the property until January 2003; and Anthony DiCenso Jr. of Sarasota, Fla., and Gilbert L. Rieger of Mahoning Avenue, who the lawsuit says were partners in T & amp;G and maintain ownership interest in Warren Recycling.
Officials at the companies couldn't be reached.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
Quotable
"This is the beginning of the end for this company and for the pollution of this area," Dubin said.
Debbie Roth, who leads the citizens group Our Lives Count, which formed out of concerns about the rotten egg, hydrogen sulfide odor coming from the landfill, is one of the plaintiffs along with her husband, Robert, and son, Caleb.
"The report from ATSDR [Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry] said the hydrogen sulfide was an urgent public health hazard at exposures of a year or less," Roth said. "We're there already."
ATSDR is a federal nonregulatory wing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Although the facility reached a consent agreement last year with the Ohio attorney general's office to bring the facility into compliance, Roth points out that many of the elements of that agreement haven't been met.
History
For years, many residents of the city and Leavittsburg have complained of the odor which they contend makes them ill with everything from nausea and itchy eyes to breathing problems, sore throats and headaches.
ATSDR, and Ohio and U.S. Environmental Protection Agencies have concluded the odor was coming from the landfill.
"Since February 2002, the Ohio EPA has received over 800 complaints from residents concerning the noxious odors, noise, dust, debris and air contaminants emitted" from the landfill, the lawsuit says.
In November, ATSDR said an "urgent public health hazard" existed in Warren Township because of the hydrogen sulfide.
Besides the health problems, the residents contend the odor, noise, dust, debris and air contaminants from the landfill may cause their property values to decrease.
The lawsuit seeks damages to the residents for their purchase of equipment to remove the emissions and pollutants from the homes and property, for illnesses caused by those pollutants, and for mental anguish.
It also asks the judge to issue an order requiring the companies to correct the recycling operation so the residents' and their property are "no longer physically invaded by toxic pollutants and air contaminants."