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Residents Tell DEP: Dump Plan For Landfill

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By GEOFF FOX

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 25, 2008

DADE CITY - When Bill Blanchard was through speaking to officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, more than 100 people, many of them wearing red "Vote NO Landfill" T-shirts, stood and applauded.
DEP officials called a public meeting Tuesday night at Pasco Middle School to discuss the permitting process for a proposed landfill off Enterprise Road, a mile and a half southeast of the city limits. Largo-based Angelo's Aggregate Materials wants to build a 90-acre landfill on a 900-acre tract it owns there, across the street from the small construction debris landfill the company runs.

The goal of the meeting was for DEP officials to hear the public's concerns, said Mary Jean Yon, director of the DEP's division of waste management in Tallahassee.

Blanchard owns property next to the proposed dump site.

"East Pasco is a special place," he said. "I've spent my life hunting, fishing and canoeing here. A lot of time and money has been spent by the government and individuals to protect the nearby Green Swamp from development. What sense does it make to permit a dump there?

"This dump does not pass the public-interest test."

Many who attended the meeting are members of a group called Protectors of Florida's Legacy, which has stirred public interest in the issue and lobbied local government officials to oppose the project.

Both Jodi Wilkeson, a Zephyrhills councilwoman, and Curtis Beebe, a Dade City commissioner, reminded DEP officials that their respective boards had drafted resolutions against the project.

Some speakers complained about how the dump would look and smell, and others said it could result in plummeting property values. Several people said dump-truck traffic would lead to safety issues and road problems.

Others worried about sinkholes, the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and polluted water leaking into the aquifer, as well as the Withlacoochee and Hillsborough rivers and other water bodies.

The owner of a nearby citrus grove worried that buzzards would breach greenhouses he was forced to build by state and federal officials.
DEP officials passed around samples of material that would line the dump, but Chris Miller, a science professor at Saint Leo University, said there are no guarantees the liners could withstand 30 inches of rain from a tropical storm.

"I have the title 'doctor' in front of my name, but you don't need that degree to know that this is a really bad idea," Miller said. "In science, I tell my students that there is no such thing as 100 percent. You won't know for sure if that liner will ever break. It's impossible to know that."

Charles Waller, a Dade City lawyer who was one of several landowners to sell property for the project, spoke in favor of the landfill.

"I do not represent Angelo's," he said. "My grandson lives about a mile and a half from this project. He's 9 months old and gets his water from a well on that land, so I have an interest in the health of this project, as well.

"If we don't have a place to put our trash, they want to build another incinerator."

Waller argued that the landfill would be safer to people and the environment than an incinerator.

Angelo's applied for permits to develop the landfill in October 2006. The DEP is reviewing Angelo's permits regarding environmental resources, which pertains to wetlands impact, and solid waste.

The DEP, which has requested more information from Angelo's on both permits multiple times, is under no deadline to make decisions.

If the landfill is approved, interested parties can argue against the permits through administrative hearings.

Those hearings are presided over by a judge with the state Department of Administrative Hearings.

Yon said Tuesday that the DEP does not have "a chosen stand."

"We are in the process of making up our mind," she said, adding that the landfill also must be approved by Pasco County zoning and land-use officials.

Several members of Protectors of Florida's Legacy vowed to also speak before county commissioners.

Not long after applause from Blanchard's speech died, Karen Pate, director of Crystal Springs Preserve, unveiled a large banner signed by thousands of schoolchildren who have visited the preserve to study environmental science.

"These children do not want to have to clean up your mess or mistakes," Pate said.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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