Local landfill gets a 180-day extension

A $4 million Ohio EPA cleanup was recently completed at Warren Recycling.
BY AMANDA GARRETT
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The city board of health extended an operating license for the transfer station at the Warren Recycling Inc. landfill for 180 days, as recommended by the Ohio EPA.
The landfill at 300 Martin Luther King Blvd. is in compliance with all environmental issues, but is not in compliance in other areas, said Katharina Snyder, environmental specialist with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The landfill, Snyder said at the board's Wednesday meeting, is in noncompliance over financial issues.
The owners, Richard Jones and Steven Cicero, owed $58,000 in solid waste disposal fees, but the company paid them, city Health Commissioner James Lazor said.
However, the attorney general's office is still looking into why the money wasn't paid on time, and is also still in the process of completing a background check on the facility's owners.
It is not unusual for the attorney general's office to take a long time to complete a background check, Snyder said.
The board did not have to follow the EPA's recommendations, Snyder said. Board members could have granted the license or rejected it.
At the end of the 180 days, the health board can make a decision on whether to grant the transfer station its 2006 license, Snyder said.
Health problems
The health board's decision was not made with Warren residents' best interests in mind, said Debbie Roth, president of Our Lives Count, an advocacy group for the landfill's neighbors.
"They're not looking at this from the standpoint of the safety of the people in the neighborhood," she said. "Their biggest concern is what to do with the garbage."
Warren hauls its municipal waste to the site.
The board's action is the latest in a series of controversies surrounding the landfill and transfer system.
The landfill was closed from 2004 until June of this year because of urgent health threats to people living in the surrounding areas. In a November 2003 inspection, the Federal EPA found hydrogen sulfide gas, which can cause chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue and nausea.
The landfill was then closed for a $4 million cleanup that covered loose debris with a clay cap to keep rainwater out, draining and filling areas of standing water, and grading the landfill so water would flow towards a ditch.
The EPA also installed a treatment system for water that had come in contact with hydrogen sulfide.
According to EPA documents, the Ohio EPA and the health board must work together to permanently close the landfill portion of Warren Recycling.
The transfer station is now in compliance with all of the federal EPA's standards, according to EPA documents. The responsibility for inspections will now be in city and Ohio EPA hands.
In other business, the board voted to demolish houses located at 693 Maple Street S.W., 2294 Burton Street S.E., and 1776 Milton Street S.E.
agarrett@vindy.com