By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FAIRFIELD - City leaders and residents will try to broker a compromise with Greater Cincinnati Water Works officials who want to place a 9-acre sludge pit near some of Fairfield's most expensive homes.

A compromise is the best route for all involved, Councilman Mark Scharringhausen said Thursday. Water Works sued Fairfield to build the pit after City Council unanimously denied its request in the fall.

"Now that it's into the courts, if we can sit down and work out an equitable situation that becomes a win-win for everyone, that is the best way to go," he said. "Otherwise, if you are on the side that wins, you win big. If you are on the side that loses, you lose big."

After the council rejection amid overwhelming residential protest, Water Works applied for a cut-and-fill permit to build the pit. That, too, was denied.

The cut-and-fill permit request was to be appealed before the city's Board of Zoning Appeals on Wednesday. But now Water Works will delay that appeal at least one month and meet with the city to "try to explore an amicable situation," said Dan Schlueter, a Water Works legal affairs liaison.

The move comes after the homeowners association of one of the affected neighborhoods, the Monastery, recently met privately with the city law director and two council members. The city also has privately met with Water Works officials.

"We just want to get it resolved and over with," Monastery resident Janet Schraer said Thursday. "But there needs to be a condition that says, `This is it, Cincinnati. This is the last pit in Fairfield. Don't think of it again. You find an alternative method to dispose of the sludge, because dumping it in our city is not acceptable.'"

In the most cantankerous issue to hit Fairfield's 42,000 residents in years, Water Works wants to place the pit at the River Road water treatment plant, 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.

Neighbors, who feared their property values would plummet, circulated petitions against the pit and other subdivisions joined the battle.

Water Works needs to build a new pit soon because the existing one, on private land in Fairfield Township, is nearing capacity. Water Works says the pit is not dangerous, is environmentally responsible and would keep the waste on the property instead of trucking it down Fairfield streets.

The utility's operations include water supply and treatment for Cincinnati, most Hamilton County communities and a portion of Clermont, Butler and Warren counties.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.