TOTAL WASTE LOGISTICS Melfi hires consultant, pushing landfill issue

The mayor also wants to retain an environmental attorney.
GIRARD -- Mayor James Melfi has taken the fight against a new landfill in his city to the next level. The mayor hired an environmental consulting firm on Tuesday.
Columbus-based Bennett & amp; Williams Environmental Consultants will examine the landfill application of Total Waste Logistics for "deficiencies," Melfi said.
Total Waste Logistics submitted its application to the City Health Department on June 9 to open a construction and demolition debris (CDD) landfill on 19.9 acres off U.S. Route 422.
A consultant from Bennett & amp; Williams also met with the City Sanitation Department and spent the afternoon viewing the area and studying the plans for the proposed site.
The mayor said he also wants to retain an environmental attorney. "The city will take every possible environmental step to ensure the safety of our citizens," Melfi said.
Request granted or denied?
The City Health Department will decide on Aug. 9 whether to grant Total Waste Logistics' application request. If the request is denied the landfill company can file an application with Trumbull County. If that request is denied, Total Waste Logistics can take it to the state level.
Melfi says, "The State Legislature should create laws to protect small municipalities so we don't have to go it alone."
Currently the state has only two requirements for landfill operations.
A landfill cannot be within a 100-year flood plain within a water source. It also cannot be on a sole source aquifer, which means the landfill cannot be near a water source.
Total Waste Logistics' application was filed before a state-instituted six-month moratorium was placed July 1 on all landfill applications, so that a state advisory committee could be put into place.
The City of Girard is currently under a fiscal emergency. The funds to pay for the legal battle will not come out of the General Fund but from the City Health Department budget, Melfi said.