by Nancy McGill, The Milford Times

    The future of dumping Seward County's trash is at the crux of a public hearing set for next week.
     Seward County Commissioners will hear from the public regarding the request of G&P Development to rezone 53 acres of land from transitional agriculture to agriculture. The meeting is set for Tuesday, May 16, at 7 p.m. at the Seward Civic Center Auditorium.
     G&P wants to secure the rezoning before purchasing land from Milford resident Larry Springer to expand the landfill, located approximately two miles south of Milford. The landfill is filling fast with just about four years to go before reaching capacity, Ken Mertl, G&P district manager, reported at a Seward Planning Commission meeting March 27.
     At the meeting, the planning commission voted 4-2 to deny G&P's request after disgruntled neighbors of the landfill voiced their opinions.
     "It's way too close to too many people," said Dale Hauder, who lives less than a mile from the landfill.
     "I work for the USDA and I know all the requirements. It's not sanitary, it's not safe and we don't want it there," neighbor Rebecca Singaas said.
     Her comment reflects the many violations G&P has received from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) during unannounced routine inspections over the past six years.
     Twice, the company has settled out of court with NDEQ over repeated violations which include, "discharging waste leachate, a pollutant, out of the landfill and into the environment; failing to maintain their leachate pump in good operating condition; causing liquid waste leachate to be ponded and standing over areas where waste had been placed in violation of their permit; failing to have required daily cover placed over waste on two separate occasions," and a number of additional violations.
     In a landfill, leachate is liquid that flows through the waste, picking up contaminates along the way. Pipes laid along the bottom of the landfill are designed to catch leachate. Liners on the very bottom of the landfill and along each cell's slopes stop contaminates from reaching the ground below.
     Mertl said G&P never admitted to the violations and instead, agreed to pay the fines imposed by NDEQ, which have amounted to over $150,000. But Mertl, who came to G&P in May of 2005 on the heels of the latest lawsuit, also said he is making efforts to limit the violations at the landfill.
     Mertl said as part of the 2005 lawsuit, G&P cannot have any violations for a year. NDEQ has not been out for a routine inspection this year, although Waste Management Section Supervisor William Gidley said NDEQ is planning an inspection for the spring.
     Gidley said G&P has met the requirements needed to correct the most recent set of violations. NDEQ doesn't always follow up with a physical visit to landfills in violation. Reports and photographs sent to NDEQ showing violations being corrected are sometimes sufficient.
     The amount of waste being hauled into G&P on a daily basis was also a hot topic of discussion at the planning commission's meeting.
     Hauder said the amount has increased from 300 to 1,000 tons per day. G&P Sales Manager Kelly Danielson said the daily volume has increased from about 250 tons to 450 tons since 1999 when G&P purchased the landfill. He said about one third of the trash is hauled from Lincoln/Lancaster County.
     In a separate interview, Mertl said the landfill takes in 350 tons of refuse per day in the winter and 450 during the summer months.
     An independent truck driver, who did not want to be identified, said he hauled contaminated soil from Burlington Northern/Santa Fe Railroad into the Milford landfill approximately four years ago. The driver said at least four drivers made eight to 10 trips a day to the landfill for about two weeks, hauling 15 tons each time.
     Milford resident Jim Young wanted to know exactly how much waste was being hauled into the landfill and where it was coming from. So Young parked his vehicle near the landfill on random days in mid-April and took notes.
     During two-hour blocks of time between 6 and 8 a.m., 8 and 10 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. and 4 and 6 p.m., Young recorded 45 trucks from Lincoln/Lancaster County, 17 from Seward/Saline Counties and six unmarked/unknown.
     The data was compiled by Dr. Bryan Miller, who has a background in statistics and lives near the landfill. Miller said based on the amount of trucks from Lincoln/Lancaster County, the landfill should reach capacity in two-and-a-half years.
     "It's upon us to take care of our own trash and waste, but it's not our responsibility to take care of Lincoln waste," Young said.
     Earlier, G&P had defended itself against accepting refuse from Lincoln.
     "We're a business," Danielson said. "We operate for profit. And while there used to be 400 landfills in the state, there are only 23 now."
     G&P's parent company, Waste Connections of Nebraska, Inc., serves 20 percent of the Lincoln market, according to a Nebraska Supreme Court decision on whether Waste Connections, Inc., should pay the City of Lincoln an occupation tax, since its garbage is hauled to the Milford and Butler County landfills and not the Lincoln landfill. Waste Connections, Inc., lost the case.
     On the other side, G&P serves the Seward/Saline area well, said Ron Minchow, chairman of the Seward/Saline Solid Waste Management Agency.
     G&P introduced a recycling trailer program to Seward County when the Butler County landfill was still taking recyclables. The grant-funded trailers were placed in Milford, Pleasant Dale, Garland, Bee, Staplehurst, Dorchester and Friend. There are no trailers in the City of Seward, although the city does have its own recycling center.
     Butler County stopped accepting recyclables last year because people were not using the trailers appropriately, filling them with nonrecyclable materials. Recyclables are now hauled to Lincoln or York.
     Seward County helps to fund the recycling program in villages that do not employ maintenance crews. Taxpayers fund the program in cities such as Milford and Friend because they have their own city maintenance departments.
     G&P also informed Seward County of the Disposal Fee Rebate, a program that works off a grant issued by NDEQ. For using recycled products such as paper, Seward County could receive 10 cents per ton hauled into G&P Landfill. In last week's Milford Times, County Clerk Sherry Schweitzer was misquoted, saying the program could amount to $50,000 per year for Seward County. The actual amount was $10,000.
     If the county were to receive $10,000, it would mean G&P is hauling 100,000 tons of waste into the landfill in a year's time. If trucks run six days per week, the average amount of waste is 320 tons per day.
     Minchow also cited G&P's tax value to the county. The tax valuation has increased since Minchow became chairman and he expects it to increase again.
     "The county will benefit from more tax because of the expansion," he said.
     But Minchow also said he would not want to live next to a landfill.
     "I don't know if there is a good landfill. I don't know where the best landfill is, but I wouldn't want to live there," he said.
     The landfill is specific and controlled, Minchow said.
     "G&P has the money to correct serious problems so it can't fall back on the county," he said. "They have the resources."
     The agency agrees with Minchow. Area village and city officials said as much in a form letter supporting the expansion to the county commissioners, one of which was signed by Minchow. In a separate letter, Bill Hartmann of Hartmann Construction also backed the expansion.
     "The needs of the many should and must override the desires of a few," Hartmann wrote.
     Minchow did not know if he will participate in the public hearing. He has checked with Seward County Attorney Wendy Elston about a conflict of interest because Minchow is the agency chairman and a county commissioner.
     Although he is required to be on the agency's board because of an interlocal agreement between Seward and Saline counties, Minchow said this is an unusual situation. He was hoping to hear from Elston May 9 on the matter.
     Minchow said the commissioners may not vote at the public hearing.
     "People may want to think about this," Minchow said of the commissioners.
     Meanwhile, the situation is disturbing to Springer, who has been talking with G&P about the sale of the land. Springer agreed to answer questions for a past article in The Milford Times about the expansion.
     "Everybody's blaming me because I'm trying to sell. They've offered me a fortune. I've never made that much money," Springer said.
     He declined to disclose the amount being offered for his land.