TRUMBULL COUNTY Health board turns down call for action against landfill

The state needs to officially notify the board before it can act, members said.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- City health board members say they can't take any action against a Martin Luther King Avenue landfill because they haven't been notified about a pending contempt-of-court action against the facility.
Debbie Roth, leader of Our Lives Count, a residents group formed because of concerns surrounding the landfill operated by Warren Hills Inc., asked health board members at a meeting Wednesday to revoke the company's license.
Residents have been complaining for years about a hydrogen sulfide odor, which smells like rotten eggs, coming from the landfill that they contend is making them sick.
Roth referred to a December 2002 meeting in which the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said a facility is considered in "substantial compliance" with Ohio law if there is no enforcement action against it.
She pointed to a contempt-of-court motion the Ohio Attorney General's Office filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in March. The motion, which is still pending, contends the landfill hadn't complied with a consent agreement to address problems.
"There is an enforcement action now in place," Roth said. "They are not in substantial compliance again. I would like the board to consider again, revoking their 2004 license."
No word from state
Robert Pinti, deputy health commissioner, and health board members said the state hadn't contacted them.
"There's no action we can take until we're officially notified," said Lillie Brooks, board member. "They [the state] have an obligation to notify the board if there's action they want us to take. They haven't done that."
Pinti said he'd call the state today.
If the board is notified, it will consider action, said Thomas B.J. Letson, another board member.
"We've not been notified, and I think that's a slap in the face of this board by the attorney general's office," Letson added.
Paul Barley, the landfill's operations manager, said there's been a septic odor around the facility over the last few weeks and that officials from the company, the city and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency have been working to identify its source.
He said the company has submitted data to the state as required by the consent agreement reached last July. The agreement set out dates by which the company must address problems at the site, such as the hydrogen sulfide odor.
Communications
When the company sends information to the state, the state responds with a letter asking questions and detailing deficiencies, prompting the company to send a letter back with the new information.
"All of the letters back and forth have slowed down the process," Barley said.
He said some of the things required by the state at the landfill have never been required of a construction and demolition debris landfill in Ohio before, so the company is dealing with some new ground.