Neighbors concerned over proposal to bring more poultry waste to Evansville landfill

EVANSVILLE – Republic Services wants to bring more chicken waste to its Vanderburgh County landfill – and the residents who live nearby aren’t happy.

Republic, Evansville’s contractor for trash and recycling, runs the Laubscher Meadows Landfill on Wimberg Road, just off St. Joseph Avenue. On Dec. 15, representatives from Republic will appear before The Board of Zoning Appeals to seek approval to amend its special use permit to accept “poultry waste” – including excrement – from farms and growers in 10 surrounding counties.

The landfill already takes poultry waste from Vanderburgh, Gibson, Warrick and Posey counties. The expansion would allow them to also receive it from Pike, Dubois, Spencer and Perry counties in Indiana, as well as Union, Webster, Hopkins, McClean, Daviess and Hancock counties in Kentucky.

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In a letter to nearby residents, Republic claimed the move will keep them competitive in “our region’s large and growing poultry growers and farming industry.” And they said it will give farmers another option to dispose of poultry waste during times of the year when they’re unable to use it as fertilizer for their fields.

But all of that worries Jerry Skinner.

The neighborhood association president for Laurel Court Subdivision, Skinner said his property sits on the backside of the landfill, off Laubscher Road. He and his neighbors didn’t know anything about the proposal until a few of them received the letter from Republic in late November.

Many others didn’t get a letter at all, he said, and only heard about it when residents distributed notices of their own.

“The smell is one of the biggest concerns,” he said.

Then there's the timing of the BZA meeting. He and others are trying to rally a group of residents to come to Room 307 at the Civic Center that day, but the meeting falls in the middle of the afternoon, in the grip of the busy Christmas season.

“The meeting they’re setting up is at 3 o’clock,” he said. “I mean, how many people are gonna be able to go in there? Most people are at work.”

City, county governments supported the move months ago

Local government support for the expansion actually came months ago, during a May 10 meeting of the Vanderburgh County Solid Waste Management District.

According to the meeting's minutes, attorney Mike Schopmeyer spoke on behalf of Republic. He said they started accepting trash from the 10 outside counties about five years ago. But due to “remonstrators from the adjoining neighborhood,” they declined to include animal waste in that deal.

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Now Republic wants that to change. Schopmeyer said they're eyeing a “baby step for poultry waste."

They would collect “farm poultry waste," he said. "Not from processing plants.”

“Currently, a competitor waste management (company) receives all that and it’s valuable to us,” he said.

Turns out, it’s valuable to everybody. As a county commissioner, Cheryl Musgrave is a member of the solid waste board, along with Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and others. She told the Courier & Press her main concern was that Republic’s collection would take the waste away from farmers, who use it as a “much-sought after” fertilizer for their fields.

Some even pay good money for it. And many landfills, including Laubscher Meadows, use it as "cover" for their trash.

So Musgrave reached out to Indiana Farm Bureau, who told her farmers can only use poultry waste on fields about five to six months of the year – not when crops are already there, and not when the ground is frozen.

Major egg producers such as Prime Foods in Warrick County also need to dispose of waste, she said. During the months it couldn’t be used as fertilizer, Republic would collect it.

“This landfill is a last-resort thing,” she said. “That’s how it was explained to me by the Farm Bureau and by Republic.”

How much chicken waste will Republic collect?

During the May 10 meeting, Republic Municipal Manager Todd Chamberlain said the landfill would take in “10-12” loads from outside counties per year, sometimes as big as 20 tons at a time.

“Put that into comparison of a Laubscher Meadows landfill daily intake of six- to seven-hundred tons a day,” he said. “So it’s a very small percentage, fractional in fact, that would occur – and again, only ... if the fields are so wet that you can’t get in them or they’re so cold and frozen that you can’t get in them either.

“(It) certainly doesn’t cause any issue, at least from our perspective.”

Musgrave and the other board members – commissioners Jeff Hatfield and Ben Shoulders; Evansville City Council Missy Mosby; and Mayor Winnecke – expressed their support, signing a non-binding resolution advocating for “Republic Services Amended Special Use Permit to be extended for an additional 10-year period and to include the acceptance of poultry waste as described herein.”

The only board member who didn’t sign the resolution was County Councilor Mike Goebel, who was absent.

The Courier & Press asked Winnecke spokesman Noah Stubbs for comment on the mayor’s support of the move. He replied only, “no comment.”

'Tell me why it's a good idea'

Skinner, though, would like some answers.

“I’d like one of (the board members) to stand up and tell me why it’s a good idea to bring in (waste) from (10) different counties,” he said.

One of his biggest concerns is that the new hauls coming in will fill up Laubscher Meadows, force Republic to ship Evansville trash elsewhere for processing, and cause trash collection rates to skyrocket.

In a statement to the Courier & Press, a Republic spokesperson said Laubsher Meadows has “sufficient capacity remaining and continues operation to maximize the life of the landfill for the economic benefit of the community.”

But Skinner said Republic is having a hard time managing the landfill as it is, even before it brings in the extra waste. On some days, especially the weekends, he claimed they don't cover the trash the way they’re supposed to.

“There’s a smell already,” he said. “… At times, we’ve counted as many as 59 or 60 buzzards flying around. So they’re going to try to take in this chicken waste, and I’m sure that’s not gonna help.”

In its statement, Republic claimed it “remain compliant with the strict disposal procedures” outlined by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and that they cover refuse with “either soil or a synthetic tarp" each day.

County Commissioner Jeff Hatfield said that covering should mitigate the smell of the chicken waste. He lives about a mile from the landfill and has never noticed a stench – except when it comes from fertilizer in the fields. And that, he said, “has to happen."

“While I’ve been a commissioner I have not heard any (complaints). And I’ll tell you what: I get every call it seems like,” he said. “If there were calls complaining about smells out there, I would have gotten them.”

Nearby residents such as Skinner, though, are worried the extra chicken waste would change the game. A letter written by a resident and sent to the Courier & Press worries that the smell of poultry waste would intensify in the hot summer months.

The letter urges anyone opposed to the move to show up at the Board of Zoning Appeals on Dec. 15.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: More 'poultry waste' could come to Evansville's landfill