TRUMBULL COUNTY Landfill proposal is rejected

A community activist says residents are the victims, not the company.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The companies that own and operate a Martin Luther King Avenue landfill proposed a plan to close it in four years, but the plan was rejected by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the attorney general's office.
Atty. Steven D. Bell, who represents Warren Recycling Inc., the company that owns the landfill, said WRI and Warren Hills LLC, which operates the landfill, proposed a permit increase that would allow the landfill to accept 4,000 tons of waste a day. The operating license allows the landfill to accept 1,500 tons a day.
The change would produce closure in about four years. The proposal was presented in writing earlier this month.
Rejected
"We heard back by telephone 10 days later from the attorney general's office that the proposal was rejected," Bell said at a special city health board meeting Tuesday. "There was no counter proposal from the state."
About 10 days ago, 35 employees working at the landfill were laid off, and the landfill isn't accepting any waste.
"If we're not in a position to accept any material and no material is being accepted, no revenue is being generated," Bell said.
Air monitoring is continuing, and leachate is continuing to be pumped for now.
Bell said the companies are willing to work with the agencies to resolve problems, but no meetings have been scheduled.
Mike Settles, an OEPA spokesman, declined to comment because the dispute is an ongoing legal matter.
But Michelle Gatchell, a spokeswoman for the Ohio attorney general's office, said the offer proposed doesn't "adequately address the continual noncompliance with the court's July 1 consent order."
"The state negotiated the order in good faith with all parties," she said.
About a year ago, the companies and the state signed a consent agreement spelling out steps the companies would take including gas monitoring, leachate maintenance and a closure plan. The agreement was to resolve a 1999 case in which the landfill was charged with accepting waste prohibited at construction and demolition debris landfills.
Caught in the middle
Mayor Michael J. O'Brien said the city is caught in the middle. He plans to meet with the city's law department this morning to see if the city can ask the common pleas court judge to order the parties to continue negotiations.
Debbie Roth, leader of the citizens group Our Lives Count, formed because of health concerns stemming from a hydrogen sulfide rotten egg odor they contend is coming from the landfill, said the company has been promising for a year to address gas monitoring and leachate and it still isn't done.
"I find it interesting that they come in here acting like they're some victim when we're the ones who are getting sick," Roth said.
"We're the victims."
The companies' proposal also included contributing monthly payments to a trust fund account in the name of OEPA, funding the estimated cost of closure and postclosure obligations.