Residents deserve more than a draw in battle with landfill

Four years of jousting between operators and neighbors of the Warren Hills landfill came to a draw this week when the owners withdrew their application to continue accepting refuse rather than face the prospect of being rejected.
For the time being, at least the fate of the landfill and the comfort of the neighbors lies in the hands of the Ohio Attorney General's office. The attorney for the landfill's owners and operators, Warren Recycling Inc. and Warren Hills LLC, are negotiating with the attorney general's office on a consent agreement with the state.
We urge Attorney General Jim Petro not to waver on a demand that past problems at the landfill be addressed and that there be ironclad safeguards for the public in the future operation of the dump.
We also urge cooperation between incumbent state Rep. Sandra Harwood and Sen. Marc Dann and newly elected Rep. Randy Law on legislation designed to regulate landfill operations. Harwood and Dann introduced legislation last session and Law says he will introduce legislation in the new session.
Landfills are a necessity -- everyone who puts a trash can at the curb must realize that. But no one wants a landfill in his or her backyard.
A landfill and more
But that is exactly what residents around the Warren Hills landfill on the city's far West Side got. They also got something that wasn't necessary or acceptable, a lingering smell of rotten eggs and serious concerns about the health effects of living with that stench.
The opponents of the landfill were looking for a small measure of victory Wednesday when the Warren Board of Health was to rule on Warren Hills application for a permit to operate in 2005. They expected the board to recommend against the permit. They didn't even get that.
What they got, though, was an assurance that today is the last day the landfill can accept refuse. And before it can even apply for a new permit, it will have to reach an agreement with the state.
The attorney general's office says the landfill didn't comply with a July 2003 consent order reached that called for leachate management, hydrogen sulfide containment and gas monitoring. That agreement was reached after the state Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry declared the area around the facility a public health hazard.
If the owners and operators of the landfill don't clear up the problems, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could step in and do a clean-up, at which time the owners and operators would become responsible for the cost.
That gives the attorney general a pretty big stick to use in negotiating with Warren Hills.