Waste industry challenges local rules
The Canton Repository
CANTON - Under rules passed last month, local landfills will have to do several things to help ensure their operations don't harm their neighbors.
They include minimizing odors, noise and dust, collecting litter, keeping garbage trucks on private routes at least 150 feet from a home, operating between 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and having a written odor control plan.
But the waste industry doesn't want to be required to do all this. It considers the rules a violation of landfills' constitutional rights.
The National Solid Wastes Management Association in Washington filed a lawsuit in Stark County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday against the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District, arguing that state law did not give the waste district the authority to pass those rules. It's asking for a judge to declare those regulations invalid.
The association's attorneys, who are based in Columbus, could not be reached late Wednesday for comment.
District officials said they were expecting the lawsuit.
The waste district's executive director, David Held, defended the validity of the rules. That includes one regulation that, starting in 2008, will prohibit landfills in Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties from accepting waste from other waste districts in Ohio with lower recycling rates than the district here.
"We bring in 20 percent of the state's waste into our district, and we are less than 5 percent of the state's population," Held said. "We believe that it's very important that communities outside of our district meet the same recycling standards that we have set for ourselves. ... we believe that we're on solid ground. We believe that we are able to adopt and enforce rules in our district."
Held said the district's lawyers, who work for the firm Black McCuskey Souers & Arbaugh, had found the rules to be legal.
Stark County Commissioner Gayle Jackson also stood behind the new regulations.
"I think (the district's rules committee) proposed rules that were fair, certainly rules that would attempt to protect our communities and yet not harm any outside entities," she said. "Anyone can sue anybody for anything. Certainly, we didn't pass these rules thinking we didn't have the authority."
