Hundreds oppose landfill expansion

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By Robert Wang
Repository Staff Writer

MAGNOLIA - With the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency close to deciding whether to grant final approval of the American Landfill’s expansion, residents, politicians and activists staged their goal-line stand against the landfill at a public hearing Thursday evening.

More than 300 people packed into the Sandy Valley High School auditorium. The crowd appeared overwhelmingly opposed to the expansion, which would involve placing new waste on top of 164 acres of existing waste and growing the landfill’s footprint by 104 acres. The Ohio EPA gave preliminary approval of the expansion of the Sandy Township landfill in December. The expansion is expected to allow the landfill to operate for at least 40 more years.

Daniel Fonte, 61, of Osnaburg Township (left) asks Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials how high American Landfill would be after its planned expansion and how much the extra waste would weigh. Fonte posed his question at a public hearing on the expansion that the EPA held Thursday night. Officials said they’d have to look up the answer. Repository Photo by Bob Rossiter

Citizens raise questions

Environmental consultants hired by the group Citizens Against American Landfill questioned the data the landfill provided the EPA. They said no one has been able to account for what happened to the liquified waste from the old, unlined parts of the landfill. .Read more