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Proposed Landfill Carries 'Good Deal' Of Risk, Group Warns Advocates

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By CARL ROTH

Special to the Tribune

Published: January 3, 2009

Both the "Landfill A Good Deal for Pasco" (Dec. 26) and the Tom Jackson "Really Green" (Dec. 28) opinions really miss the mark on the dump that is proposed to be built near the Green Swamp, source of the Floridan Aquifer.

The Florida Consumer Action Network has joined Jackson and the Nature Coast Sierra Club in support of this catastrophe after "drinking the Kool-Aid" (misinformation) that the landfill applicant is providing. It is interesting to our citizens group, Protectors of Florida's Legacy, that every entity expressing support for the dump has chosen not to hear any other perspectives before issuing their endorsements.

That is certainly unfortunate, because every business/environmental/homeowner organization, city (Dade City, Zephyrhills, Tampa), and several of our elected officials who have heard both points of view oppose the dump at the proposed location, given the environmental harm, economic risk and health hazard it introduces to the Tampa Bay region.

Our group has reviewed all three permit applications submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and they reference the acceptance of as much as 3,000 tons of waste per day at as much as $70 per ton. That compares with the $56.70 per ton that Pasco County charges - a figure that includes recycling.

There is no bioreactor landfill (new technology without state or federal standards) proposed, and it is doubtful there ever will be. So, initially landfill gases (methane, carbon dioxide, mercury, etc.) will simply be vented into the atmosphere, further contributing to global warming. This is in addition to the significant truck traffic (1,000 trucks per day) that would add congestion to the local roads. Savvy, concerned citizens recognize this for the Trojan horse that it is.

We have visited large state-permitted landfills, such as the one in St. Lucie County, along the turnpike. It attracts so many birds that the sky above the site is dark with them. Not to mention the noxious odor that is harmful to one's health.

According to state landfill regulations, only a tarpaulin is required to cover the exposed garbage for six days a week, forcing residents to breathe these smells. If the applicant follows the rules, the garbage would only have to be covered one day - Sunday. The company has not demonstrated consistent diligence with its adjoining construction landfill in this arena, being cited for odors and lack of sufficient cover for basic construction debris.

Our group is continuing to monitor this project closely and making information available to all parties (large and small) interested in all the facts about the proposed dump. What irks the applicant about our group is that we took the initiative to build awareness in the surrounding impacted communities, and our activities have been 100 percent funded out of our own pockets.

We support landowners large and small in the effort to protect our limited drinking water supplies that this dump will ultimately destroy. The DEP is right now planning to declare a portion of the Floridan Aquifer in Orlando, below a facility that was operated under current regulatory rules, a "wasteland unfit for drinking water supplies."

The applicant has not demonstrated in its permit application that the proposed location is not a risk to sinkhole collapse, and the DEP should learn from these past mistakes that the proposed location near the Withlacoochee and Hillsborough rivers is a "time bomb" just waiting to happen.

Carl Roth is the spokesman for Protectors of Florida's Legacy, which opposes the landfill Angelo's Aggregate Materials wants to build outside of Dade City.

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