Landfill wins state approval
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 15, 2003
[10/15/03]JACKSON Reversing a decision it made four months ago, the state environmental-regulatory agency Tuesday approved a plan to allow a small private landfill in southern Warren County.
The decision means property owner Betty Ewell and attorney Paul Kelly Loyacono, her business partner, may create a landfill on 10 acres she owns off Jeff Davis Road.
Known as the W.T. Ewell Landfill, it was granted a permit with no expiration date by what is now called the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in 1986.
Neighbors of the site have opposed the plan and the Warren County Board of Supervisors had argued to the MDEQ permit board that, because of changes in environmental laws since the permit was issued, the old permit should be invalid and a new, more rigorous permitting procedure followed.
In a 4-2 vote on June 3, the MDEQ board agreed with that logic. Following Tuesday’s hearing, however, the permit board reversed itself, 4-1. This time, the board had before it written testimony and other filings from each of the parties involved, including the Warren County Board of Supervisors and MDEQ legal staff.
Loyocano has maintained that Vicksburg and Warren County residents could enjoy lower waste disposal rates, saving millions of dollars per year, if alarmist fears of a landfill could be overcome.
There is now no garbage landfill in the county, although waste was buried at various sites from the city’s founding through about 1990.
Tuesday’s decision may be appealed to Warren County Chancery Court, a step District 4 Supervisor Bill Lauderdale said afterward should be taken.
“I’m disappointed,” Lauderdale said, adding that he would ask the county board at its Monday meeting to authorize an appeal. “It needs to go to a higher court.”
Loyacono had called the state’s June decision “political.” The decision had been made after a personal appearance at the meeting by Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg.
At the beginning of Tuesday’s hearing, Loyacono asked that three of the board members, all of whom had voted down his plan in June, recuse themselves. He said because of the agencies they represented and the committees on which Chaney serves, they might appear politically influenced by him.
The hearing officer, David Scott of the attorney general’s office, allowed the two of the three who were present, Jim Lipe of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce and Kent Ford of the state Oil and Gas Board, to make the decision for themselves. Both said they could decide impartially and declined to step aside.
Ford changed his vote Tuesday to yes. Lipe, who has since become chairman of the board, did not vote. Neither of the other two board members who cast no votes was present. Tim Darnell, successor to health department representative Ralph Turnbo, voted yes. The fourth member, who originally voted no, Jan Boyd, was absent.
Cragin Knox of the MDEQ’s geology office and Jamie Crawford of its land and water resources office cast the other two yes votes, consistent with those they had cast in June.
Christopher Alonzo of the department of wildlife, fisheries and parks, who had abstained, cast the no vote.
“Right now we’re discussing an appeal,” Andy Sumrall, the attorney for the group of Yokena-area residents who opposed the plan said after the board’s vote. “I feel sure we will.”
Ford, who made the motion in June to deny the plan, cited neighbors’ and the county board’s statements that no landfill was needed.
MDEQ attorney Roy Furrh said the changes in the law did not require a formal “needs assessment” for the landfill for the board to give the approval it ultimately did Tuesday.
“There is no mention (in the applicable laws) of anything related to economic considerations,” he said.
After the decision, Sumrall said he disagreed and thought the law did require a demonstration of need.
“There was no showing of need whatsoever,” he said. He added that it was “amazing” to him that two people, Ewell and Loyacono, thought they could decide what was best for the citizens of that area of Warren County.
In earlier hearings, he had argued that the landfill would affect the area negatively, through increased traffic on area roads.
For his part, Loyacono also argued that the landfill would benefit Vicksburg and surrounding areas by increasing the supply of waste-disposal space.