Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

County's garbage will need new home

The county's landfill is almost full, but a few environmental concerns must be addressed before the new one can be used.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published September 30, 2005

LECANTO - Since 1990, dump trucks have deposited more than 100,000 tons of garbage a year into a 19-acre cell at the county's Central Landfill.

In two weeks or less, that cell will be full, said Solid Waste division director Susie Metcalfe, and the county's garbage could have nowhere to go.

Crews finished constructing a new 6-acre cell four months ago, but the county needs a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection to use it.

That permit won't be issued, DEP officials say, until the county finds a way to install groundwater monitoring wells and gas monitoring probes to test for pollution outside the current landfill's borders.

The county is working to comply with that mandate, Metcalfe said, but securing property to build the wells has become a sticking point in negotiations.

In order to build the wells, she said, the county needs access to 55 acres of land around the landfill's perimeter owned by the Department of Forestry as part of the Withlacoochee State Forest.

But before they agree to lease the property, forestry officials want to swap the 55 acres surrounding the landfill with 60 acres of county-owned property on the south side of the Withlacoochee State Forest.

County officials say that property is already tied up in other negotiations with the state.

Forestry officials are looking for other land that might work in a swap, said Keith Mousel, resource administrator for the state forest.

Metcalfe said the permit agreement should be completed soon, before the old cell reaches capacity.

"We're just negotiating a few paragraphs out of 40 pages of permit," Metcalfe said. "I'd say we're making pretty good progress."

If the county can't complete a permit before the old cell fills up, Metcalfe said, officials will have to decide whether DEP fines for using the new cell without a permit would cost more than trucking trash to another facility.

She said delays in negotiations with Forestry Department officials and delays in construction caused by inclement weather resulted in the eleventh-hour negotiations.

"What should have been a leisurely transition turned into a time crunch," Metcalfe said.

On Sept. 20, the county entered into a consent agreement with the DEP, agreeing to install the monitoring wells within 90 days.

The wells are needed, DEP spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez said, because testing has revealed that methane and chemicals were leaking from old buried trash cells at the landfill.

"We wanted to make sure that before we gave a thumbs up to the next phase of this facility, that we have already addressed and have a game plan to deal with the old problems," she said.

Metcalfe said the leaking chemicals are not a threat to residents.

Vazquez said she did not know what the DEP penalty would be if the county used the new cell without a permit, but she said the permit should be final in time.

"These hurdles are going to be taken care of," she said.

Once the new cell is in use, Metcalfe said, it will take 10 years to fill it.

--Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified September 30, 2005, 01:35:17]