Landfill application goes back to company

The company can resubmit the application.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HUBBARD -- An application for a landfill here has bounced between the requesting company and county health board officials like a tennis ball, and has again landed in the "court" of TransRail America Inc., the company asking for the permit.
TransRail submitted an application for the landfill to the board of health a second time about two months ago. The proposed landfill would accept construction and demolition materials and be located on several acres on Drummond Avenue, near Mount Everett Road. The company owns 172 acres, but the landfill would not occupy the entire area.
Members of the board of health had 60 days to review the application and give an answer to TransRail representatives. The board has until Friday to notify the company.
Consultants hired
Frank Migliozzi, health board environmental director, said the board of health hired the consulting company of Bennett & amp; Williams of Columbus to review the application. The consulting company, he said, found several areas of the application incomplete.
The health board has authorized the health commissioner to notify the company that the application has been deemed incomplete. Migliozzi said the notification will be sent today.
"On an incomplete application, the board does not take any action," he said. Migliozzi could not say exactly how many items in the application were incomplete but did say the consulting company found a substantial number. It will be up to TransRail to correct those items and resubmit the application, he said.
"Our letter will state that the application is incomplete and if they want to resubmit they must address these items. It is up to the company if they do that," he said. "We are not going to do anything else until we hear from the company."
Migliozzi said the board will also be requesting an opinion from the county prosecutor about how to handle the application regarding a new law that exempted some landfills and landfill applications, making them immune to new state regulations.
The application was deemed incomplete in July 2004 and was not considered then. "We believe there are some stipulations that may make this application fall under the new site criteria," he said.
Lawsuit filed in 2004
TransRail filed a lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in 2004 against the township over zoning issues at the landfill site. That lawsuit is still working its way through the courts.
Rick Hernandez, spokesman for Hubbard Environmental and Land Preservation, the group opposed to the landfill's opening, said the incomplete application exemplifies the group's point about the potential landfill.
"This displays how incomplete their plans are for the businesses they want to place on that property."
jgoodwin@vindy.com