Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Landfill is a towering controversy

To the dismay of many residents, the company that owns a landfill in Balm wants to more than double its size.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published September 2, 2005

BALM - They call it Balm Mountain.

And it could get bigger.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has given tentative approval to a plan to enlarge the landfill that towers over farm fields here in eastern Balm.

With DEP approval, the landfill company would move on to apply to the county land use hearing officer for permission to more than double the landfill's size, from 40 acres to 95 acres.

Locals who gave the landfill its nickname say they're opposed to the expansion plan.

"It's totally inconsistent with the landscape around Balm," said tree farmer Gerald Davis, who is also the president of the Balm Civic Association. "It sticks out like a sore thumb."

In 2003, Balm residents helped foil an earlier expansion plan - twice - after Sun Country Materials, the company that runs the landfill, asked the county's land use hearing officer for permission to expand.

Hearing officer James Scarola denied the request after residents voiced their opposition. Sun Country Materials appealed Scarola's decision, but it was upheld.

This time around, Sun Country has started the process with the DEP and the county Environmental Protection Commission, leaving county approval for last.

Sun Country president Christopher Valerian said the new proposal is "different in dimension and engineering and everything else" from the old expansion plan.

"This cannot be represented as something we just dusted off," he said. Starting the approval process with DEP is "really the appropriate way to go," he added. "I think it will help our case with the county."

Pam Vazquez, spokeswoman for the DEP, said Sun Country's application is complete and seems to meet the requirements for a permit.

"As long as it's safe for the environment and safe for human health ... it's pretty hard for us not to grant a permit," she said.

Vazquez said DEP has received two petitions from residents objecting to the expansion.

But to have an effect on the permitting process, she said, residents would have to show how the plan violates the DEP's regulations. "It has to be a pretty good reason" to object, she said.

If the DEP gives its blessing, said EPC general manager Ron Cope, so will the EPC. That will leave the county to decide whether the project should go forward.

Davis said he's invited Sun Country to the civic association's next meeting on Sept. 12. So far, he said, he hasn't heard back from them.

Balm is already carrying more than its share of civic burdens, Davis said. In addition to the Sun Country landfill in the east, it also has a county-run landfill to the west, as well as a state prison.

"I really don't think we need to be a dumping ground," he said.

But the landfill expansion may be a necessity, Cope said.

The Sun Country landfill is nearly at capacity, he said.

"If they do not get this expansion ... they'll be done operating by this time next year," Cope said.

There are no other construction-debris landfills in Hillsborough County, he said.

"I have no side in this whole thing," Cope said, "but if this facility does not get this permit, we in Hillsborough County are becoming extremely limited as far as where construction and demolition debris can be disposed. I'm not telling you I want it open or I want it closed. But we're running thin."

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at srosenbaum@sptimes.com or 813 661-2442.

[Last modified September 2, 2005, 02:15:35]