County hires law firm to appeal EPA orders on landfill problems

By NOAH BLUNDO
The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR - Tuscarawas County commissioners Thursday officially retained the Canton law firm of Black, McCuskey, Souers & Arbaugh for their appeal of orders from the Ohio EPA regarding odor and heat problems at Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Chris Korleski’s orders detail measures the East Sparta landfill must take, including paying more than $1 million in fines, working to suppress odors and submitting a plan to put out a fire the EPA believes is burning under the landfill. Countywide officials have said they will comply with the orders, though they dispute the presence of a fire....Read more.

Continue the fight

The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR - We support the decision by Tuscarawas County commissioners to appeal decisions made by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency about the Countywide Landfill near Bolivar.

Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski issued several orders on March 28 aimed at resolving numerous problems at the landfill, including the terrible smell coming from it that has plagued residents in northern Tuscarawas County and southern Stark County for quite some time. Officials also are concerned about underground fires at the facility....Read more.

Commissioners appeal EPA orders - Tuscarawas County officials vow to go it alone in landfill controversy

By LEE MORRISON
The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR - Vowing not to abandon residents of the northern part of the county, Tuscarawas County commissioners are appealing decisions regarding Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility.

The appeal involves orders issued March 28 by Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Chris Korleski. The agreement with Countywide calls for the landfill to pay more than $1 million in fines and follow strict orders to abate its odor issue and stop its underground fires. Countywide’s parent company, Republic Waste Services, has 60 days to submit a plan to snuff out underground fires at the landfill. The plan must be approved by the OEPA....Read more.

Stark air pollution rank disputed

By Noaki Schwartz
The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Canton-Massillon area has picked up another unwanted distinction, this time as two of the most-polluted cities in America.

The Stark County cities combined to land at No. 19 on the American Lung Association’s bad-air list of the nation’s most polluted cities. “I can’t believe they have us that high,” Canton Health Commissioner Robert Pattison said....Read more.

EPA: Don't worry about Stark

By NOAH BLUNDO
The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR - The head of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency told Tuscarawas County Commissioner Chris Abbuhl in a letter that while the scale of problems at Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility might have created confusion about enforcement policies, he believes the Stark County Health Department follows proper citation procedures.

The letter from OEPA Director Chris Korleski, dated Friday, came in response to one Abbuhl sent March 7 asking Korleski to examine inspection processes between the agency’s Southeast and Northeast districts. In his letter, Abbuhl highlighted that both Countywide at East Sparta and American Landfill at Waynesburg took in more than three times the amount of trash that Kimble Landfill at Dover did in 2005 and 2006, yet Countywide and American received only a handful of violations while Kimble was cited almost weekly....Read more.

Something stinks in Port Arthur

By Monica Rohr
The Associated Press

PORT ARTHUR, TX - At the Carver Terrace housing projects, only a chain-link fence and a cluster of no-trespassing signs separate brightly painted jungle gyms from the Motiva oil refinery.

On warm days, the playground is filled with children playing in the shadow of the towers and pipes that spew smoke and spread a sulfurous, rotten-egg smell over this mostly poor, mostly black city of 60,000 along the Louisiana state line.

For decades, Port Arthur residents have lived with the refineries and chemical plants that ring their neighborhoods and loom over their backyards. And they have tolerated the cancer, asthma, and liver and kidney disease that some blame on the pollution....Read more.

Court rules for local governments in fight over garbage

By Mark Sherman
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, DC - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that local governments can compel private trash haulers to use municipal facilities, even if it would cost more to keep garbage at home than to dispose of it elsewhere.

The ruling upholding local ordinances in upstate New York protects a stream of money that allows the counties, like other governments that have built recycling centers and landfills, to help pay off millions of dollars in debt they incurred to establish such facilities....Read more.

Countywide affects owner's bottom line

The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - Odor, fire and other environmental problems at the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township had a large impact on the first quarter profits of its parent, Republic Services.

The company released its first-quarter earnings report after stock markets closed Thursday. It reported profits of $53.9 million, or 28 cents per diluted share of Republic stock, a 17 percent drop from earnings in the first quarter of 2006. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had been expecting 34 cents a share, The Associated Press reported....Read more.

Committee discusses evaluating waste plan

By BARB LIMBACHER
The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR - William Franks, Stark County Health Commissioner and chairman of the policy committee of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District, discussed how to begin evaluating the district’s implementation of the solid waste plan approved last year.

During Friday’s meeting in the district office at Wilkshire Hills, Franks said the policy committee can set tipping fees for the district based upon the following: the disposal of solid waste within the district, outside the boundaries of the district but inside Ohio and outside the boundaries of the state....Read more.