Tri-county waste plan finally gets OK

By BARB LIMBACHER
The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR – After 14 years of delays, the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District has a new solid waste plan.

At a special board of directors meeting Thursday afternoon in the district office, the plan was approved.

Because the board could not agree, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials stepped in and wrote the plan for the district. The district also wrote a plan and submitted it to the OEPA. Many ideas from the district plan were used in the new plan.

The district has been operating under a plan adopted in 1993....Read more.

Waste district OKs recycling plan

BY Robert Wang
The Canton Repository

BOLIVAR - The delay in agreeing to a waste disposal and recycling plan took nearly as many years as the number of words in the local waste district’s name.

The Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District board voted Thursday to authorize the board’s chairman to approve the 258-page plan — more than seven years after the deadline.

“This issue should have been put behind us long ago,” said Tuscarawas County Commissioner Kerry Metzger, who joined the board in 2003. “It’s time to move on.”...Read more.

Officials: Landfill Deadline Not Set in Stone

By Daniel Hockensmith
WKSU Radio

CANTON - Over the weekend, the Ohio EPA inspected the Countywide Landfill in Stark County, which recently was declared a public nuisance because of its smell. Despite a state deadline, it may be weeks before a decision is made on renewing the facility's operating license....Read more.

Small recycling actions can have big impact

BY Robert Wang
The Canton Repository

CANTON - After decades of tossing all her trash, Louise Sherban decided to start recycling.
She’s 80.

On one cold and cloudy day, her husband, Ray Sherban, drove her nearly six miles to Diamond Park in Plain Township.

She pushed to lift the lids of the recycling Dumpsters in the park and chucked in newspapers, cardboard, cans and plastic bottles.

“It’s a struggle to get here,” she said, noting this was the closest recycling location to her Lake Township condo....Read more.

Summit fears losing dump rights

BY Bob Wang
The Canton Repository

AKRON - Concerned it may be prevented from sending trash to Stark County, Summit County’s waste authority is expected to soon challenge new rules backed by Stark commissioners.

Paul Barnett, a board member of the Summit/Akron Solid Waste Management Authority, said the rules could result in higher waste disposal costs for Summit residents to ship their waste to areas farther away than Stark. He said both counties are linked.

“You’re affecting an economic region,” said Barnett, who’s also Akron’s public works manager. “If you have a negative impact on Summit County, Stark County is affected, too.”...Read more.

OEPA plans to monitor landfill odor

By ZACH LINT
The Times-Reporter

EAST SPARTA - Mike Settles, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Northeast District spokesman, said Thursday that the OEPA plans to monitor the odor issue at Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility beginning Saturday.

OEPA Director Joseph Koncelik set a deadline for Countywide to have the stench eliminated by today after he termed it a nuisance in September.

Bolivar and Wilkshire Hills area residents complained for months about the odor....Read more.

Solution to landfill odor problem due today

BY Bob Wang
The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - Time’s about up for the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility as the state-imposed deadline for the landfill to get rid of its odor problem is the end of today.

Two days before the deadline, contractors still had not completed installing a plastic cap over 30 acres of the landfill. As they worked, the nauseating odor was strong, as the wind swirled. Several gas lines snaked their way on the surface of the cap, which looked like a massive, black covering on a mountain of waste. The workers, rushing to install the cap, had not had time to bury the gas lines....Read more.

Waste-industry spokesman explains position

BY Bob Wang
The Canton Repository

CANTON - A day after a waste industry association filed a lawsuit to invalidate new local waste district rules, the association’s spokesman said Thursday that many of the concerns those rules seek to address have already been dealt with in voluntary agreements.

David Biderman, the general counsel for the National Solid Wastes Management Association, said many of the rules are vague and interfere with interstate commerce, which can be regulated only by Congress, not local governments....Read more.

Lawmakers should watch landfill suit

The Canton Repository

CANTON - The Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District needs to ensure that landfills are good neighbors. If a court or a state agency finds that the district has exceeded its authority by approving rules for landfill operations, state law needs to give the district that authority.

In November, the district board approved regulations designed to reduce noise, odor and dust, dictate operating hours and restrict garbage truck traffic near residential areas. Because such regulations come at a cost for landfills, it’s not surprising that a landfill trade organization, the National Solid Wastes Management Association, is taking the district to court....Read more.

Waste industry challenges local rules

BY Bob Wang
The Canton Repository

CANTON - Under rules passed last month, local landfills will have to do several things to help ensure their operations don't harm their neighbors.

They include minimizing odors, noise and dust, collecting litter, keeping garbage trucks on private routes at least 150 feet from a home, operating between 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and having a written odor control plan.

But the waste industry doesn't want to be required to do all this. It considers the rules a violation of landfills' constitutional rights....Read more.

Summit fights dumping rules

By Bob Downing
The Akron Beacon Journal

AKRON - Summit County is fighting a plan that could ban its trash from landfills in other counties.

The Summit-Akron Solid Waste Management Authority on Tuesday voted to fight the new rules approved Nov. 3 by the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Solid Waste Management District.

The Summit agency agreed to file an appeal with the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission, although state officials were unsure if that was the correct procedure.

The commission usually hears appeals of decisions by the EPA, not rules imposed by a county garbage district....Read more.