FAIRFIELD - Neighbors are vowing to launch a referendum drive if city leaders approve plans for a 9-acre sludge pit for lime waste near their upscale homes.

        Greater Cincinnati Water Works officials want to place the pit at their

        River Road water treatment plant in Fairfield, which serves northern Hamilton County. But it would border the Monastery and Riverside Estates subdivisions, where 250 to 300 homes average $300,000 in sale price.

        “Accepting this is not an option,” said Gregory Sunday, vice president of the Monastery Homeowners Association. “Cite me one case where a landfill has driven up property values.”

        Residents are circulating petitions and other neighborhoods are gearing up to join battle, which is coming to a head.

        It goes before the Fairfield Planning Commission Wednesday at a 6 p.m. meeting at the Fairfield Municipal Building and will be voted on at City Council sometime in October. A council majority is necessary to overturn the planning commission's decision.

        The proposed sludge pit would sit about one-third mile from the homes in a lushly wooded area where wildlife roams. An existing sludge pit for the plant is nearing capacity, said Rob Schroeder, a Greater Cincinnati Water Works engineer. The new pit would be capped in about 30 years, he estimates.

        “We feel like we have best option for the water works and the city of Fairfield,” Mr. Schroeder said. “We will put a significant buffer around it. There will be green space and it will be a fairly substantial amount of green space.”

        Neighbors will be handing out information about the proposed pit and offering petitions against it for signature from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today in the parking lot of the AmeriStop Food Mart at the intersection of Pleasant Avenue and Augusta Boulevard.

        This week, about 25 citizens and city leaders met with Mr. Schroeder and Miami University chemistry professor Andy Sommer to discuss safety and other issues related to the landfill.

        Mr. Sommer told neighbors the existing landfill is not dangerous.

        But some citizens say Greater Cincinnati Water Works should be forced to recycle the lime residue instead of burying it behind their homes. The substance contains calcium carbonate, a common element are used in pharmaceuticals and plastics materials, Mr. Sommer said.

        “What kind of conscience do you have if we cut down a forest to dump this stuff in the ground when we know there's places it could be used?” asked Janet Schraer. “It just doesn't make any sense to me. We have to pay to recycle our pop cans and newspapers. They should have to pay to have this recycled. That's just the way of the world now.”

        At least two council members, Steve Miller and Ron D'Epifanio, said they would vote against the sludge pit. Other council members said Wednesday they were undecided.

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