BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- For the second time in a week, Warren County zoning officials have voted to delay a decision on whether to endorse a proposed landfill after hearing hours of public testimony.
The Warren County Zoning Commission will meet again in a week after members study documents related to the proposed Bigfoot II landfill in Union Township.
More than 100 people attended the hearing in the Warren County Justice Center on the proposal by Browning-Ferris Industries of Ohio Inc. (BFI) for a landfill next to the company's Bigfoot Run waste site.
The waste disposal company was denied an endorsement by the Warren County Regional Planning Commission last month.
County commissioners are to consider BFI's proposal within two months. Approval by the three-member body would move the Bigfoot II landfill proposal to the next level at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA).
Doug Hahn, who lives in the Trovillo Road neighborhood next to Bigfoot Run and is president of the Morrow Environmental Preservation Association (MEPA), urged the zoning commissioners to vote against BFI's proposal "in the interest of continued growth, prosperity and welfare of the area."
Bill Nicholson, a resident of Morrow, told the zoning board members that if they put in another landfill, they will have "a ticking bomb in a highly populated area that is becoming all the more populated."
"Why would you want that?" he asked.
Warren County, the second-fastest growing among Ohio's 88 counties, has one landfill. The Bigfoot Run landfill will reach capacity and close in May. BFI contends that sending solid waste out of Warren County will be too costly for residents and leave them open to price gouging by other area waste disposal companies.
BFI officials maintain that their proposal, which includes a zoning variance request on 150 acres east of the current Big Foot Run landfill, is supported by the larger number of Warren County residents who are not MEPA members.
Robert Dolder, district vice president of BFI, said if the zoning commissioners approve the plan, "they will be going with the majority."
If the request is approved by county commissioners, BFI officials will have to apply for a zoning application and submit a site plan, both of which would have to be reviewed and approved by the OEPA. If BFI wins both county and state approval, the Bigfoot II landfill could be operational by summer 1999.
