Letters – Readers question landfill supporters

To the Editor:

In regards to the last public meeting, I am would be very interested to know how many of the people who attended the meeting that were in favor of the proposed “Environmental Park” lived anywhere near the area that will be affected by this. It is very easy for those who are not in the area to be in favor of the proposed dump because they will not

directly be affected immediately as will those of us who live next door to it.

My husband and I live on FM 1185 and have since 1995. We are greatly opposed to this disastrous proposal for many reasons as are our neighbors and friends.

The people who spoke against the dump at the meeting pointed out the multitude of reasons why this dump would be very detrimental to Caldwell County as a whole. I would like to add our thoughts and concerns as well.

The very real possibility that the landfill will leak eventually poses a huge threat to the aquifers in the area as well as the large reservoir on the property. The fact that the property is in the 100-year flood plain needs to be considered as well. Runoff from the landfill when large rain events occur would be devastating to our creeks and ponds as well as the aquifers.

Our livestock and wildlife would be negatively effected by this. We have many different types of wildlife in our area which would have their habitat disrupted.

Many of our neighbors have found different archeological artifacts such as arrowheads, spear heads, etc., on their property.

One of the biggest issues will be the odor from the household trash and other putrescent wastes the facility is going to accept. There is no getting around the fact that rotting garbage stinks and attracts scavengers like rats, birds, and coyotes given the rural location.

How is the company operating this landfill planning to address the large amount of heavy truck traffic delivering to the facility? The large increase in truck traffic is going to cause additional wear and tear on the roadway as well as the dirt, mud, and debris the trucks are going to track out on the roadway?

Another issue is the fact that landfills will never shrink and will routinely ask that their permit be modified to accept more tons per day and when the existing cells fill up they will ask for a permit increase expansion to grow the landfill larger in size. When they have expanded to their maximum footprint, they will request a permit modification to increase their maximum elevation. Living with a landfill is not a static situation – the operating company will continually ask for more and more without giving anything back to their host community.

The multitude of negative factors that this “park” would produce far outweigh any remotely possible benefits from it such as a small amount of jobs working in a dump.

Thank you,

Robert and Claudia Brown

Lockhart