CINCINNATI — Hamilton County Commissioners unanimously approved new set of local rules for the operation of landfills today, sparking a new round of controversy over the Bond Road landfill in Whitewater Township.
“Rumpke, as soon as the rules were passed, they sued Hamilton County,” said Tim Mara, a former attorney who has opposed the expanded use of the 575-acre landfill on the Indiana-Ohio border. “So, that’s their approach to things. They don’t want to be regulated and they sue. So, the county now has compromised what were already weak rules. And now they’re watered down further.”
Rumpke argued in court filings that the existing rules, passed by commissioners last December, were unconstitutionally vague and exceeded the county’s limited rule-making authority. Passage of the new rules would settle Rumpke’s lawsuit against the county.
“Rumpke’s never been against reasonable rules and regulations,” said Molly Yeager, communications manager at Rumpke. “We just want to make sure they’re within the scope of the law.”
Mara said the new rules would limit the county’s ability to restrict excessive truck traffic near the Bond Road landfill, which last week received an Ohio EPA permit to accept up to 1,500 tons of trash daily at the site. That’s 15 times the landfill’s prior permit.
“Hundreds of trucks per day would come through here if this site is fully used,” Mara said. “What kind of environment is that to the people who live here? What’s the safety impact, the damage to the county roads? You can look and see they were not built with hundreds of trucks per day in mind.”
Yeager declined to comment on the new rules, but a comparison of the old and new rules shows significant changes were made.
They include the removal of a compliance section that required the company to submit a report that describes the impact of a proposed landfill on the local environment, economy and health. The compliance report calls for 17 issues to be addressed, including traffic, property values, “impacts on aesthetics” and increased demand for police and fire service.
"One of the goals in our litigation was to streamline the process, not to prevent public input, but to make it more efficient and effective," said Pamela Sears, a senior litigator who worked on the Rumpke litigation for the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office. "The way we did that frankly was to fold the compliance report into what we now call a community impact statement that’s incorporated into the application process."
Sears told commissioners require Rumpke to meet the same standard as the old rules. They must "convince this board that project will not have a detrimental effect on the environment or the community beyond what is able to be mitigated."
Mara is also bothered by settlement language that calls for commissioners to “repeal the rules in their entirety, and adopt new rules.”
“It’s as if the rules didn’t exist during this past year,” Mara said. “And because Rumpke filed for their permit during that period of time, they might be grandfathered in and not subject to any rules.”
Sears told commissioners that won't be the case because Rumpke applied for its Ohio EPA permit before either set o rules were enacted.
