43
Springfield residents missed chance to comment on landfill expansion
NEW SPRINGFIELD
Residents in Springfield Township say they didn’t get notified about a public hearing on a proposed expansion of the Mahoning County Landfill on Garfield Road.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency conducted a public meeting about the proposal May 7 at Springfield Township Administration Building on South Range Road.
Even though it was not a township trustees’ meeting, residents said at Wednesday night’s trustees meeting, the trustees should have taken measures to notify residents.
“I wish I could have been here to ask questions,” said Reed Metzka.
“We posted a notification on the door,” said Trustee Robert Orr.
“I know we have until May 15 to call them [Mahoning landfill], but I just regret that more people weren’t aware of it,” Metzka continued.
“We have no host agreement with them,” he said. “So that tells you something right off the bat. We don’t want them here.”
“All the water around here is checked?” asked resident Daryl Hoffman.
“Water testing goes on all the time on the property,” Orr said, adding that the landfill sends the samples to an independent laboratory.
Orr also said people who live around the landfill can ask the Mahoning County Board of Health to test their water.
Resident Gail Taylor, who lives next to the landfill, said the board of health does not test for methane.
Taylor told the trustees that “it’s their duty to be aware of what people in the community think.”
“Everybody should be communicating,” she said. “You’re not in touch with the residents.”
“You didn’t represent any of us around the landfill ‘cause none of us knew anything about it,” said Bud Colwell, who also lives next to the landfill.
“I got a letter from the EPA, and I assumed everybody around there got one,” said Trustee Rick Jones.
There are about 40 homes around the landfill.
The Ohio EPA has issued a draft permit for the expansion. If it becomes final, the waste disposal area can increase by 51.6 acres to a total of 109.6 acres and a capacity of 14.33 million cubic yards to 24.11 million cubic yards.
The maximum amount of waste the landfill would be allowed to receive would increase from 2,500 tons per day to 4,000 tons per day.
Comments concerning the draft permit should be emailed to lynn.sowers@epa.ohio.gov.