Wednesday, January 06, 1999
Morrow, BFI head for next round
Landfill goes back to first proposed site
BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MORROW — Village officials are preparing for another battle with a Warren County landfill operator that again is seeking to build a waste site in the community.
After last month's defeat of a rezoning proposal in Union Township, Browning-Ferris In dustries (BFI) is following through on its strategy of trying to win rezoning of parts of a 473-acre plot in Salem Township.
BFI submitted a new zoning application with village officials Dec. 31 and will pursue approval from the same village council that rejected a similar application in late 1997.
Warren County commissioners last month voted 3-0 to reject BFI's request to expand the waste disposal company's Bigfoot Run landfill — known as the Bigfoot II site — in Union Township.
“We have said all along that if they rejected the Bigfoot II proposal, we'd take another look at the Morrow site,” said Rob Dolder, district vice president for BFI.
BFI tried in late 1997 to gain zoning approval from village council for the same site at the former Alpine Ski Resort, but council quickly passed an ordinance against such waste sites.
That ordinance later was rejected in a partial decision rendered in 1998 by Judge P. Daniel Fedders of Warren County Common Pleas Court. The village cannot appeal Judge Fedders' rejection of its zoning ordinance yet because he has yet to rule on other issues surrounding it.
But after the judge's partial opinion, BFI switched strategies and instead pursued an expansion of its Bigfoot Run waste site in Union Township. And later, BFI officials said the Morrow site would only be pursued if they could not create a Bigfoot II site.
Mike Powell, solicitor for the village, said BFI's new application first will be considered by the council. If it is accepted, it will go to the village planning commission for a recommendation or rejection, neither of which would be binding on council.
The landfill zoning application could be publicly considered as early as next week when the council meets Jan. 12, said village officials.
Ruth MacKenzie, whose home on Morrow-Blackhawk Road borders the Alpine site, heads the anti-landfill group Morrow Environmental Preservation Association.
“We feel we are delaying BFI. Time is definitely on our side,” said Ms. MacKenzie.
BFI's Bigfoot Run landfill is to reach capacity and close in May. The landfill is the only operating waste-disposal site in Warren County.
BFI officials contend that Warren County needs a landfill. Without it, residents will suffer from lack of waste disposal company competition and higher disposal fees.
Opponents of the Bigfoot Run expansion and the proposed Morrow site say the increase in such fees would be minimal and worth the county's avoidance of water, ground and air pollution they fear another landfill would bring.
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