Board appealing landfill expansion
The Times-Reporter
BOLIVAR - An appeal of the June 27 decision to allow a 170-acre expansion by Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility will be filed on behalf of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District board of directors.
The appeal of the decision by the Environmental Review Appeals Commission will be filed with the 10th District Court of Appeals at Columbus. It must be filed by Friday.
The expansion will take total acreage at the facility, located in Stark County’s Pike Township and owned by Republic Services Inc., based in Florida, to 258 acres.
At a special meeting of the district’s board of directors Wednesday morning, commissioners from Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties voted 5-3 in favor of filing the appeal.
Voting for it were Kerry Metzger, Jim Seldenright and Chris Abbuhl of Tuscarawas County; Todd Bosley of Stark County; and Scott Wiggam of Wayne County. Jane Vignos and Tom Harmon of Stark County and Ann Obrecht of Wayne County voted against filing an appeal.
“This appeal will take the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and ERAC out of the mix, and a decision will be made by the 10th District Court of Appeals,” Metzger, who served as board chairman, said after the meeting.
The district has spent about $300,000 in legal fees to take its case to ERAC, a process that began about three years ago.
The decision from ERAC rejected claims from groups, including the joint solid waste district, the village of Bolivar and Club 3000 – a grassroots environmental group – that the Ohio EPA was in error when it granted a permit for Countywide to expand in 2003.
The groups claimed that engineering problems and the danger of underground contamination of the water aquifer should have led OEPA to deny the expansion permit.
In the end, ERAC stated that none of the criticisms should prohibit Countywide’s expansion and that landfill studies, plans and designs met Ohio EPA criteria for issuance of an expansion permit.
Tim Vandersall, general manager at Countywide, said the appeal postponed the construction of an on/off ramp on I-77 that would take the trash trucks off narrow county roads that lead to the landfill.
Countywide has pledged $15 million to build the ramp.
Vandersall said Countywide has an agreement with Pike Township, and once the appeals are concluded landfill officials will move forward with construction of a ramp.
Abbuhl said there are other issues at the landfill, including water contamination and the strength of the plastic liner under the trash and whether it has been compromised by heat generated by a fire or chemical reaction taking place beneath the landfill.
“It is extremely important to move forward to make sure the landfills are safe,” Abbuhl said. “The appeal process needs to continue.”
After the meeting, Wiggam said he was looking at the facts of the case, and it was tough for him to make a decision for the entire district.
“I always consider the entire district in my decisions. The consequences are grave enough to appeal and finish the process. I don’t like to spend interest money or don’t want to shut down the landfill, but the odor and the liner strength are issues,” he said.
Obrecht asked Vandersall if Countywide officials intend to place new trash over the current 88 acres where the odor is originating.
“We are not planning to place new trash over the 88 acres,” Vandersall said.
“Forever?” Obrecht asked.
“That is the way the EPA findings reads – no new trash. Once the reaction stops maybe some light trash will be placed there. We have created a valley between the hill with the reaction and the other cell. We need to fill that in,” Vandersall said. “OEPA and the engineers will decide what type of trash would be placed there.”
After the meeting, Vandersall said he wanted to make it clear that the board’s decision to appeal is a waste of money.
He also noted that recent odors were caused by workers drilling into the reaction zone and settlement on top of the landfill.
Bill Huth, Lawrence Township zoning inspector, and Gary Franks, Bolivar water and street superintendent, said a cruise-in held Saturday night in downtown Bolivar closed early because of the odor from the landfill.
“The issue of smell has been there almost a year, but last weekend there was an overpowering stench,” Huth said. “There were several hundred (people) at the car show and most left. It has been a year since the OEPA’s orders were issued. When is this going to stop? Something needs to be done.”
Franks said Saturday’s odor episode was probably the worst since last year. He said when he got home, the odor was all through his house.
“The odor has improved but has not gone away, and we need to appeal ERAC’s decision to get the full story to someone else who will listen to us,” Franks said.
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