Lawsuit seeks landfill papers
Copley Ohio Newspapers
CANTON – Pike Township trustees have filed a lawsuit seeking documents relating to the persistent odor problems at Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility to see if there’s reason enough to shut down the landfill.
The intent of the suit, filed Friday in Stark County Common Pleas court, is to gather enough information to determine if the landfill operators can be cited for nuisance and zoning violations.
“We know that there’s an odor,” said Charles Hall, the township’s attorney.
“What we’re trying to determine: If Countywide has done everything their experts have told them they can do to control the odor. ... If not, we’ll ask the court to take further action to enforce the township’s zoning and nuisance ordinances.”
Hall said the landfill has refused to turn over records related to what it’s done about the odor, which he calls “persistent and pervasive.”
The case has been assigned to Judge Richard Reinbold. The township has also named the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District as defendants, in case they have any of the documents the township wants to see.
Tuscarawas County Commissioner Kerry Metzger, who is on the board of directors of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District, said he was perplexed why trustees would name the district in the lawsuit.
“We’ve been fighting this issue longer than the Pike Township trustees have been fighting this issue,” said Metzger. “All they would have to do is ask and the solid waste district would provide them the information.”
Metzger said that as far as he knew, Pike Township trustee have never asked for any documents from the district.
Countywide’s general manager, Tim Vandersall, said this week he believes the intensity of the odors have fallen to a level below that of an average landfill.
“I don’t recall them asking me for anything. We’ve been pretty open with everybody. It’s kind of a surprise,” he said of the lawsuit. “I’m confident that (whatever) the experts have said to do, we’ve done.”
