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Learning At Landfill

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 19, 2007

WINTER HAVEN - Dade City officials touring a state-of-the-art landfill in Polk County on Tuesday morning liked what they saw: clean grounds, recycling programs and technology that compacts trash so it takes up less space.

Whether they want a similar facility built near Dade City is another question.

'The location is different here,' City Commissioner Camille Hernandez of Dade City said.

The closest house to the Polk County landfill is a mile and a half away. In northeast Pasco County, where a private company is vying for state approval to build a 90-acre landfill, the closest house is on the same street. The site also is less than a mile from the Green Swamp, an environmentally sensitive, no-growth area.

The issue has raised the hackles of many local residents. In recent months, the landfill's opponents have packed town hall-style meetings, written letters and set up a Web site to fight the proposal. Proponents have waged just as forceful a public relations campaign, making the rounds of civic club meetings and city halls to tout the proposed facility as one that will use the latest technology to ensure minimal impact on the environment.

The technology proposed by Angelo's Aggregate Materials, the company seeking to build the landfill off Enterprise Road, runs contrary to most traditional ideas of a landfill. Instead of keeping trash dry, Angelo's proposes to circulate water through the garbage to speed up the decomposition process and expand the life of a landfill cell.

This type of landfill is called a bioreactor. The North Central Landfill in Polk County is working with the University of Florida to operate two bioreactors and study their effects.

'It's the way of the future,' said Brooks Stayer, director of Polk County's Solid Waste Division and the landfill's administrator.

Although Dade City commissioners have no say about whether the Pasco County landfill will be built, both sides have been courting them. So last week, commissioners decided they wanted to see a bioreactor in operation. This month, the commission plans to write a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection either in favor or against the proposal; the city of Zephyrhills wrote a letter opposing the landfill this summer.

The city sent Hernandez and Jose Gil, Dade City's engineer, to tour the Polk landfill. They questioned Stayer about the landfill's lifespan. Stayer said it is expected to last 60 to 65 years and is 15 percent full. They also asked about the landfill liner - a question opponents have raised about the Pasco landfill because they fear toxins will leak into groundwater. Stayer said there's never been a failure of a Class I landfill liner, though they have only been around about 20 years.

The Dade City officials got a chance to see an actual working landfill, where turkey vultures and wood storks swooped down to pick at the rubble. Workers rolled over the piles in heavy machinery and sorted through the piles for unwanted materials, such as old paint cans and televisions.

The odor was sweaty and acrid, but not everywhere. Less than a mile away, at the entrance to the facility, there was no odor.

The Polk facility charges local municipalities $34.50 per ton of waste. Angelo's has offered a rate of $27 per ton for Pasco County at the landfill it wants to build.

Tuesday afternoon, Robert Sigmond of Pasco's utilities department said the county has not ruled out sending residential garbage to Polk County. Pasco County now sends overflow trash to Osceola County, though commissioners are expected to review that contract Sept. 25.

DEP and the county must sign off on the project before it can be built.

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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