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Landfill Close To State Nod

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: December 18, 2008

DADE CITY - After two years of review and public debate, state regulators are poised to approve a controversial landfill that sits near the headwaters of two of the region's major rivers.

Officials at the state Department of Environmental Protection have drafted a letter of intent - the first step toward issuing a permit - giving Largo-based Angelo's Aggregate Materials tentative approval for the household garbage landfill it plans to build near its existing construction debris landfill on Messick Road, just south of Dade City.

The letter of intent will go out for public comment next month.

The site of the proposed 90-acre landfill sits just west of Green Swamp, the source of both the Hillsborough and Withlacoochee rivers. The property is about 220 feet above sea level and within the Duck Lake watershed, which drains into the Withlacoochee River.

Opponents fear waste from the landfill could contaminate drinking water supplies for people downstream, but DEP officials say the developers' plans call for adequate safeguards.

Angelo and Dominic Iafrates want to build the landfill in a sparsely populated section of the county between Dade City and Zephyrhills. Their company, Angelo's, already operates a construction debris landfill in the area, and Pasco County also owns a seldom-used landfill nearby.

The Angelo's project would be part of a 1,039-acre development that would include a dirt mine and an expanded construction debris landfill, according to plans the company submitted to Pasco County in 2006.

The Iafrates submitted their landfill plans at a time when Pasco County's rapid growth was creating more trash than could be burned at the waste incinerator on Hays Road. The county has since spent more than a year trucking excess garbage to Osceola County for burial.

The developers see Pasco as the landfill's primary customer, but it could take trash from anywhere.

A DEP permit is the first step in what promises to be a lengthy approval process. The proposed landfill still must get a conditional-use permit from Pasco County to operate. That could take months and will involve at least two public hearings.

Given those hurdles, project manager John Arnold declined to say when construction might start on the landfill.

Opponents of the project worry the landfill could rupture and leak pollution into the groundwater, the swamp and the rivers that drain it.

The Hillsborough River provides drinking water for Tampa. Tampa officials have expressed concerns about the project and are scheduled to consider formally opposing the landfill today.

Carl Roth, who has led citizen opposition to the project, said he was disappointed at the favorable tone of the DEP's letter.

"The FDEP has stated to us this morning that this document is 'just a draft' and the decision will not be finalized until Jan. 12," Roth said in a statement.

Last week, the DEP said it would delay issuing its letter of intent until after the holidays to ensure everyone interested in the case had ample opportunity to comment.

In the last year or so, however, the landfill has been the topic of regular discussion among local civic groups and municipal boards.

Despite concerns raised about the project, Angelo's construction plans "meet or exceed" the DEP's requirements for such a facility, agency spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez said Wednesday

Those plans call for, among other things, several layers of man-made liners, a network of pipes to collect contaminated rainwater that seeps through the buried garbage and monitoring wells around the landfill to check for pollution leaking into the environment.

Arnold said opponents' concerns are overblown. He pointed to the nearby landfill Pasco County owns as proof.

"The county's landfill has been proven to work out here," Arnold said. "Ours will, too.

"If those things people say could happen could happen, they would be happening at the county's facility now," he added.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.

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