The February 27th article copied below by Jennifer Kovacs of the Tribune Chronicle is certainly good news. It says that Attorney General Marc Dann has allowed Girard City attorney Mark Standohar until March 7th to file an appeal to overturn the Ohio EPA director's ruling on TWL's application for the north side landfill. If Mark's appeal is successful, that means TWL will have to abide by the new EPA rules passed in December 2006. The new rules are much more strict than the old ones.
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Dann offers hand in landfill battle
By JENNIFER KOVACS, Tribune Chronicle
jkovacs@tribune-chronicle.com
GIRARD - A roadblock that could have prevented the city from appealing to restrict a proposed landfill was cleared by a friend to the area who has the authority to help.
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann directed his staff to withdraw a motion filed with the Environmental Review Appeals Commission that it reject the city's appeal of an Ohio EPA ruling that would permit Total Waste Logistics (TWL) to build a Construction & Demolition Debris (C&DD) landfill under old regulations.
The city wants the planned construction and demolition debris landfill to comply with more stringent rules put into place last year.
"I am withdrawing the motion because I believe the city was improperly denied an opportunity to appeal and because I strongly disagree with the OEPA's original ruling in this case,"Dann wrote in a statement that Law Director Mark Standohar presented to City Council Monday.
"I commend the city for continuing to fight this important battle, and I do not want them to lose on a bureaucratic technicality, especially when I believe they are right," Dann wrote.
TWL has applied to build the facility behind the Creekside Golf Dome off U.S. Route 422. The company asked the EPA to decide whether it would have to operate based on new or old guidelines if the landfill is approved.
The EPA had decided in December TWL would be grandfathered in under old laws. Dann's office filed a motion to dismiss an appeal by Girard because it was not filed within 30 days of the EPA's decision. The city argued that it could not have submitted a response to the ruling within that time because it didn't receive any word of it until three days after the deadline.
A frustrating experience for Standohar, he said the situation was out of Girard's hands because a formal notice of the EPA decision even today has yet to be forwarded to the city as an interested party, which created what he called an "unjust result."
In his letter to Standohar and Mayor James Melfi, Dann agreed.
"I also want to inform you that I am taking steps to alleviate the communication problems that caused the city, through no fault of its own, to miss important filing deadlines in this case," the letter states.
"As a legislator, I worked hard to prevent Ohio from becoming the garbage dump for the eastern United States. As attorney general, I will use my authority whenever possible to safeguard the public health," the letter states.
Councilman Frank Migliozzi said: "At least this gives us a little leg to stand on."
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 14 with ERAC.
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