Landfill gets surprise backer
A local Sierra Club chapter says it is better for the environment than an incinerator.
By CHUIN-WEI YAP, Times Staff Writer
Published December 6, 2007
DADE CITY - Opposition to a new landfill outside Dade City has often taken a proenvironment stance: Protect our waters, protect the Green Swamp, protect the Withlacoochee River.
So readers paid attention when the local chapter of a national environmental group released a letter Tuesday in support of the landfill proposed by Angelo's Aggregate Materials.
In her letter, Theresa Waldron, a member of a Citrus County chapter of the Sierra Club, laid out why her Naturecoast Group favors the landfill: The county's Shady Hills incinerator pollutes the environment, she said. The landfill site is buffered with natural clay. The landfill would mean cleaner air, water, roads, healthier children and less taxes, she said.
Then, Waldron added: "Being so close to the existing county dump there in Shady Hills, it makes very good financial sense as well."
But the Shady Hills incinerator and the proposed landfill are 28 miles apart.
"Is it?" Waldron said, when a reporter pointed this out. "Well, I don't know. We saw it on a big map. Maybe on the map, they looked small."
Waldron said her group came to its conclusions based on two meetings with Angelo's representatives, both times in Crystal River.
Carl Roth, who leads the landfill opposition, said each chapter of the Sierra Club operates with a great deal of autonomy, meaning not all chapters may support the views of Waldron's group. He also said Sierra Club policies on waste-to-energy facilities - meaning incinerators - are dated.
Landfill officials argue that their option is environmentally superior to the county's incinerator. It will be a state-of-the-art recycling and composting facility, they say. Hazardous waste, including untreated biomedical waste, will not be accepted.
That didn't stop state Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, from filing legislation Tuesday to block it.
Crist's bill would ban such landfills from being built within a mile of both potable and nonpotable waters with significant wildlife, as well as recreational waters. It expands the current 3,000-foot buffer around potable water sources. It threatens Angelo's proposal.
"This allows everybody to come forward and present their case," Crist said. "It's an aggressive legislative approach to force the discussion to a larger level."
In addition, Crist wants state officials to take into account water flows and past violations of state regulations when they evaluate such landfill proposals.
Angelo's officials say they want to meet with Crist.
"Unfortunately we have not spent any time with the senator," said Angelo's spokesman Bob Lotane. "We would love to be able to sit down with him and educate him."
They'll get a chance today.
Pasco's legislative delegation meets at the Pasco-Hernando Community College at 6 p.m. Both sides of the landfill debate have asked for time to speak before the lawmakers.
Chuin-Wei Yap can be reached at cyap@sptimes.com or 813909-4613.