BY KYM LIEBLER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- About 200 people spent their dinner hour Thursday telling officials from Browning-Ferris Industries Inc. (BFI) they don't want the company to expand Bigfoot Run Landfill in Morrow.
The public meeting, in the Lebanon High School auditorium, was required by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which is reviewing BFI's "permit to install" application submitted July 6.
Under the umbrella of the Morrow Environmental Preservation Association (MEPA), residents of Morrow, Salem and Union townships are united in their opposition to Bigfoot 2, which would be built next to the existing Bigfoot Run Landfill.
Handbells clanged and loud applause greeted MEPA President Warren Reed's opening statement to BFI officials: "We don't want the landfill in Warren County!"
"Not to be sarcastic," said Union Township resident Bill Brausch, "but either way, whether the permit is approved or denied, this looks like it's going to end up in the judicial system, so what good is (in) us being here?"
After living with Bigfoot Run Landfill for 40 years, residents say it is time for BFI to find another dump for the 2,000 tons of trash a day that goes into Bigfoot Run.
"We have been good neighbors to BFI for 40 years. I think it's time for BFI to be good neighbors to us," said Susan Chasteen, of Union Township, to whoops and hollers from the crowd.
Rob Dolder, BFI district vice president, said BFI futilely searched the 15-county region in Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana for another possible landfill location before it decided to expand Bigfoot Run.
He said the company looked at sites in Jackson Township in Clermont County and in Bracken County, Ky.
The problem? "The people down there didn't want a landfill either, plain and simple," Mr. Dolder said.
To open a new landfill, BFI must receive the state permit and a zoning change from rural residential to solid waste district from the Warren County Regional Planning Commission. The planning commission denied the zoning change in late June.
Paul Sherry, a district engineer for OEPA, said it typically takes between 18 and 30 months before a permit is issued.
Bigfoot Run Landfill runs out of space in May, 1999.
Audience members asked Karen Bryant, director of public relations for the OEPA's Southwest Ohio District, if their complaints will fall on deaf ears.
Others wanted to know what they can do to get the permit denied. "A lot of people think we don't pay attention, that we're a bureaucratic institution," Ms. Bryant said.
"We do listen to you. But to tell me, 'We don't want it,' that's not enough. We're looking for information we can use. I encourage you to get as much technical information as you can."
