Waste Management Planned Landfill Set Back
Dayton suburb Trotwood has slowed Waste Management's (WMI) plans for a 600 acre landfill in the integrated inner suburb of Trotwood, Ohio. Located in the least developed section of the metropolitan Dayton area, Trotwood City Council on January 19, 2005 voted to amend their zoning ordinance by restricting proposed landfills to 50 acres. WMI had purchased a parcel of land in Trotwood but has yet to apply to develop a landfill with the Ohio Environment Protection Agency or any other government office.
"Now people can stop calling the landfill just a rumor," said Gayle Gibbons who organized Call for Action, a residents' group against the landfill. "Now we have a face, it takes everything to a whole new level."
Trotwood council legal counsel, Dirk Plessner, said the zoning change will protect the city from "surprise, unwanted developments like a landfill." Plessner of Toledo law firm Eastman and Smith also represents Trotwood's Montgomery County. He seeks to convince the county's Solid Waste Management District (SWMD) to place restrictions on proposed landfills that would assure that the landfill would not be harmful to the economic welfare of the community. Nearby Jefferson Township resident Mary Johnson said such a landfill would "mess up the economic development for the entire western Montgomery County."
WMI senior legal adviser Robert Leninger stated that company representatives want to meet with the Trotwood City Council to discuss their intentions. He called the rule changed proposed for SWMD unusual but said WMI reps still plan to meet with local government officials and to work with the community. Leninger said their landfills are running out of space, a reason they need a new landfill. This landfill would be located only a few miles from WMI's present landfill in western Dayton. It shows the continued determination to locate landfills in African American areas of metropolitan America.
When WMI meets with Trotwood public officials one can expect them to offer millions of dollars in landfill fees to be paid to Trotwood. The city of Dayton was paid $26 million in "legal bribery." It will take courage and much citizen protest to stop such bribery.
one source - Dayton Daily News, January 20, 2005
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