Trustees seek help to close landfill

The trustees said a company left the township because of the landfill.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LEAVITTSBURG -- Warren Township trustees are asking the Ohio attorney general's office to close a Martin Luther King Avenue landfill.
"We believe that officials from Ohio EPA, U.S. EPA and the Ohio Department of Health are all in agreement that is it time to shut this facility down," trustees Kay Anderson, Cheryl Zaben and Terry Ambrose wrote in a letter to Jim Petro's office last week. "Please confirm otherwise."
Michelle Gatchell, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the office received the letter and is working on a response.
Trustees cite the loss of a multimillion-dollar business and the health problems of residents and employees they attribute to the Warren Recycling landfill operated by Warren Hills. U.S. Safety Gear is moving from the township to Newton Falls.
"Two residents who lived on South Leavitt forever have relocated because they have asthma," Anderson said. The landfill is in the city but borders the township, situated behind the township administration building.
"Employees and residents are being exposed to dust, noise and, worst of all, a very offensive odor from hydrogen sulfide, a toxic rotten-egg smell," the trustees wrote.
For years, residents around the landfill have complained of a rotten-egg hydrogen sulfide stench coming from the facility. Last year, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry declared the area around the landfill a "urgent public health hazard."
Lawsuit filed
Last month, 13 residents filed a class-action lawsuit against the facility and its owners and operators. Warren Hills officials couldn't be reached to comment Thursday or today.
In July 2003, the facility's owners and operators and the AG's office reached a consent agreement, spelling out steps needed at the facility to bring it into compliance with Ohio law. The consent agreement stemmed in part from a criminal case against WRI charging the company and some of its employees with accepting solid waste. The landfill is a construction and demolition debris facility and cannot accept solid waste.
In March, the AG's office asked that the company be held in contempt of court because it hadn't met a January deadline to set aside money for closure and post-closure concerns at the landfill.
Under Ohio Environmental Protection Agency rules, companies that operate landfills are responsible for five years after closure for monitoring groundwater and exposure gas and other obligations. The financial assurance is to address those elements.
The company went to court, asking for an extension, and a decision is pending.
"It is truly a sad statement when residents' living conditions are compromised by a company that only wants to make a profit regardless of what nearby neighbors have to be exposed to," the letter says.
"It is unacceptable for this company who claim they want to be good neighbors to run their operation in this manner, putting our residents at risk and citing economics as their excuse," it says.