Sunday, May 09, 1999
Landfill debate continues
BFI suing Warren County
BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — By 3 p.m. Monday the last trash truck will pass through the gates of the Bigfoot Run landfill and the site will cease stockpiling waste after decades of operation.
But there's no end in sight for ongoing legal battles in Warren County over proposals to build another landfill next to Bigfoot Run in Union Township or to build another landfill in nearby Salem Township.
Browning-Ferris Industries of Ohio Inc. operates Bigfoot Run, which is the only operating landfill in Warren County. The waste disposal company has aggressively pursued first the creation of Bigfoot Run II, which would be adjacent to Bigfoot, then a proposal to build a new and larger landfill in Morrow.
In the middle now are Warren County commissioners, who find themselves on the nervous side of a lawsuit filed by BFI after commissioners voted in December to reject a rezoning proposal that would have allowed BFI to create a Bigfoot II landfill next to Bigfoot Run.
Bringing pressure on the three county commissioners are Union and Salem Township residents who want neither Bigfoot II nor a landfill in Morrow.
Members of the Morrow Environmental Preservation Association are dumping letters and phone calls on commissioners, most demanding that the county's governing board not agree to an out-of-court settlement with BFI that would reverse the commissioners' December vote against the company.
“This is probably one of the most difficult, emotional decisions the board has faced in the seven years I've been a commissioner,” said Warren County Commissioner Pat Arnold South.
What commissioners are facing are area residents revved up by rumors that the board, in recent negotiations with BFI officials, is cutting a deal with BFI.
Not so, said Ms. South.
“It's very typical of a judge to ask all parties to a lawsuit to meet and try to settle out of court. That's standard operating procedure. That's where we are at now,” she said.
“However, to date negotiations do not appear sufficient or reasonable to consider settling the lawsuit out of court.”
BFI District Vice President Rob Dolder declined to discuss negotiations regarding county commissioners and the Bigfoot Run landfill.
BFI is also pursuing a rezoning of land at the old Alpine Ski resort in Morrow. That proposal is before Morrow's planning commission.
Mr. Dolder has said his company has long made it clear that if they were allowed to build Bigfoot II in Union Township they would abandon plans to build an even larger landfill in Morrow.
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