Pasco landfill sued by neighbor now seeks OK for higher and wider debris pile
The owner of a Hudson landfill that has been the subject of complaints from neighboring property owners for years is seeking approval to pile construction and demolition waste higher than is currently allowed and closer to those neighbors.
Coastal Landfill Disposal said “the expansion will significantly increase the much needed and available construction and demolition debris capacity in Pasco County” in the application that it filed Wednesday with Pasco County.
The request goes on to say that the landfill already exceeds the rules for height and setbacks from surrounding property owners. It said that “increasing the capacity of existing disposal sites is a viable option for supplementing the county’s construction and demolition debris capacity.”
It also argued that there are no engineering or construction solutions to satisfy existing regulations and that the request doesn’t violate the county’s comprehensive plan for growth.
The filing is the latest volley in a yearslong dispute over operations at the landfill and related businesses located on 170 acres at the end of Houston Avenue 2 miles east of U.S. 19 in Hudson.
Coastal Landfill Disposal, Cash Development and Eric Cash, owners of the landfill and recycling center, and DCH Timber Inc., which owns the 520 acres north of the landfill, have clashed over a variety of issues.
Last month, DCH Timber filed a legal complaint against the landfill seeking more than $50,000 in damages and accusing the company of failing to do required monitoring to protect groundwater from contamination from the landfill. The complaint also accused the company of repeatedly trespassing, “installing and maintaining pavement, piping, walls, fences, gates and other items and depositing waste, contaminants and debris.”
It wasn’t the first dispute between the two landowners. In 2009, the timber company’s owner, Barbara Ryals, erected a fence in the middle of the private road that serves the area. She was protesting the landfill’s construction on her property of a road to handle the heavy equipment needed at the landfill.
Since the filing of the 27-page legal action in Circuit Court last month, Coastal Landfill Disposal has asked the judge to hold off on considering the lawsuit until another legal challenge by DCH Timber in a different legal setting is resolved. That action before the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings is arguing some of the same issues, the landfill owner said.
The Circuit Court judge has scheduled a hearing next month to take up that request.
Ryals’ attorney, Scott McLaren, called this week’s request by the landfill owner to grant exceptions to the county’s land development rules for the landfill “very concerning and we believe it poses a significant threat to public health and safety.”
“Currently, Coastal Landfill is already in violation of Pasco County’s trash mound height limitation by 57%. In fact, Coastal Landfill was denied permission by the County to pile debris higher than 35 feet above ground level but ignored this limitation and went to 54 feet above ground level anyway,” McLaren said in a written statement.
“Now, even in the face of warnings from Florida Department of Environmental Protection about serious ground water health and safety exceedances, Coastal Landfill wants to double down and increase the rubbish mound height to 139 feet above ground level, almost four times the current permit allowance, putting neighboring properties and the public at further risk,” he wrote.
Last year, Coastal Landfill Disposal sought a conditional use permit from the county to allow a higher elevation for the dump, up to 71 feet, and a series of other conditions. County staff responded favorably to the height, but denied other requests and added their own conditions. A hearing before the Planning Commission was postponed and the matter has yet to be heard.
