Recommendation brings mixed emotions
The Times-Reporter
BOLIVAR - Tuscarawas County commissioners want Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility at Pike Township to be shut down, but that decision is in the hands of the Stark Board of Health, which isn’t expected to make a decision on the landfill’s 2007 operating license for several months.
A recommendation issued Wednesday by Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Chris Korleski stated that the permit should be denied but provided opportunities for the landfill to continue operation.
“We had to bring EPA into this process kicking and screaming and now our assumptions have been verified,” Commissioner Kerry Metzger said.
Metzger said he was pleased to see Korleski take action, but he wasn’t satisfied with the extent of the director’s findings. Metzger took issue with allowing Countywide to obtain an operating license if it were to agree to the OEPA’s terms and get on a compliance schedule to resolve odor and fire issues.
“I’m very disappointed,” Metzger said. “If they get put on a schedule, they’ll be allowed to continue to operate as if nothing happened. That’s morally wrong. With all that has occurred up at Countywide Landfill, they should not be allowed to continue to operate.”
Metzger said he found two good points in Korleski’s findings.
“It verifies there are fires at the landfill regardless of what (Countywide General Manager) Tim Vandersall and the landfill’s PR people are trying to spin to the public,” he said. “At least it starts the due process piece so we can get to a point where there is a post-hearing, final denial of Countywide’s operating license. Ultimately, we want it shut down.”
Commissioner Chris Abbuhl echoed Metzger and said he shared additional concerns that Metzger had with addressing the long-term health risks to area residents.
Commissioner Jim Seldenright said Korleski’s recommendation was what he expected, but he feared the landfill and OEPA would reach a compromise allowing Countywide to keep operating in the future.
“If that happens, I’m afraid we’ll lose some of the leverage we’ve gained to this point to get some of the issues at Countywide addressed,” Seldenright said. “I think the people of northern Tuscarawas and southern Stark counties have suffered enough – both property value-wise and also in quality of life. It’s really bittersweet.”
Stark County Health Commissioner William Franks said Wednesday that the Stark board will hear Korleski’s recommendations this morning but will only take the letter under advisement.
“It is not a hearing, and there will be no public discussion on the matter nor a decision made at that time,” he said. “With the issue of legal process, I have to assure that everyone here is provided a fair and non-biased hearing. The public, the company, the EPA – everybody will get to have a say. When that is finished and everything is taken into consideration, I’ll make my recommendation to board.”
Franks said that recommendation could be a minimum of two months away. Earlier reports that action was to come Thursday were not true, he said.
Meanwhile, Countywide will continue to operate on its 2006 operating permit. The landfill accepts about 6,000 tons of waste per day from 24 northeastern Ohio counties, including Stark, Tuscarawas, Wayne, Holmes, Harrison, Coshocton and Guernsey counties.
Phone calls to Countywide Wednesday were not answered, but a press release from the landfill and its parent company, Republic Waste Services, stated that a decision to deny its operating permit would mean the “state will lose a major piece of environmental infrastructure by closing the landfill.”
The release also stated: “The actual operation of the landfill is normal, and the current reaction and odors have nothing to do with daily operations at the landfill.”
Vandersall and Republic officials have maintained that the landfill is not on fire despite the findings of an OEPA consultant who stated there are “a classic metal fire and an underground smoldering fire” burning beneath the older cells of the landfill.
