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Do IT this week: Layering
Language originally inserted in bills to block plans in Stark, Tuscarawas
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Jul 12, 2008
A ban on new landfills in most of eastern Ohio will continue as the result of a federal appeals court decision last month.
In a June 5 ruling that drew little attention, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati backed language that has been slipped into federal appropriations bills since 2003 by U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Navarre.
It effectively blocks the U.S. Corps of Engineers from spending federal money to approve siting for any new landfills in 18 Ohio counties stretching from Akron south to the Ohio River in the land drained by the Tuscarawas and Muskingum rivers. The decision affects southern Summit County, as well as much of Stark, Medina and Wayne counties. It does not affect landfill expansions.
In order to build a new landfill, approval from the Corps of Engineers is required on wetland issues. Without that, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency cannot grant state approval.
''It's big,'' said David Held on Friday of the ramifications of the appeals court decision. Held is executive director of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Solid Waste Management District.
The National Solid Wastes Management Association, a national trade group in Washington, is not pleased with the
ruling.
''We don't support any legislation that is aimed at putting landfills out of bounds if they meet local need and permitting programs,'' said Bruce Parker, association president. ''It's not good public policy and it's special politics. I can understand the politics, especially in Ohio, but in the long run such special legislation is not good policy.''
How it started
In 2003, Regula and former U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-St. Clairsville, began inserting language, or riders, into the annual appropriations bill to block construction of two new landfills — Indian Run Landfill in southeastern Stark County and the Ridge Landfill in Tuscarawas County.
Independence-based Norton Environmental, the company seeking to build the Ridge Landfill, challenged the Regula-Ney action in federal court. U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan in Cleveland upheld the company's position, saying the restriction against only the two landfills was unfair, arbitrary and illegal.
Regula then revised the budget language to expand the restriction to cover any new landfills in the 18-county Muskingum River basin, which includes the Tuscarawas basin. That restriction remains in effect.
Norton Environmental again went to court and tried to get the action declared unconstitutional. In May 2007, Gaughan ruled in Regula's favor, and last month the appeals court upheld that ruling in a 12-page decision.
The latest Regula wording permits a landfill that handles wastes from the combustion or gasification of coal. But that still blocks Norton Environmental from building.
Efforts Friday to reach Regula and Norton Environmental President Steve Viny, for comment were unsuccessful.
Both praise and doubt
Local landfill opponents, including Freida Schott of the Tri-County Protect Our Waters Coalition that had fought the Ridge landfill, was happy to learn of the ruling.
''That's great. That's just great,'' Schott said.
Mike Settles, a spokesman for the Ohio EPA, said he was unsure about the impact of the appeals court ruling on pending applications from the Ridge and Indian Run. Settles said he does not believe there are any other pending landfill applications within the restricted area.
It is unclear what will happen after Regula retires from Congress at the end of this year. For the ban to continue, another congressman would have to add the rider to future appropriations bills.
In 2001, Norton Environmental proposed building the Ridge to replace two nearly full landfills operated by the company: the Royalton Road Landfill in North Royalton and the Mount Eaton Landfill in Wayne County. Both are now closed.
The company needed the new landfill to handle its waste from the Cleveland area and from Medina County, where it operates the county's Central Processing Facility in Westfield Township.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
A ban on new landfills in most of eastern Ohio will continue as the result of a federal appeals court decision last month.
Get the full article here.
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