City OKs DEP agreement

City OKs DEP agreement



KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 11/14/07


St. Augustine City Commissioners approved a plan Tuesday to fix the city's illegal dumping of dirt from an old landfill into a borrow pit.

The vote means the city will pay the Department of Environmental Protection a $33,698 fine and remove contaminated dirt from a borrow pit on North Holmes Boulevard.

The city will clean the borrow pit and put the dirt back on the landfill site on South Riberia Street, creating a 19-foot mound that will be monitored to prevent groundwater intrusion. The mound will be covered with vegetation and will back up to a marsh, with the hope it will eventually become a park and meeting spot for bird watchers. The project will cost $800,000.

Two senior city engineers were in charge of the dumping, and Mayor Joe Boles wanted them held accountable for this "big mess up."

"You're moving dirt from an old landfill... I imagine someone should have seen some red flags," Boles said. "If we haven't cleared up some heads we need to."

John Regan, city chief operations officer, said the two engineers had already left the city for promotions with other jobs. And, he said, they shouldn't take all the blame.

"I could spend three hours defending the staff," Regan said. "We never had anyone (St. Johns Water Management District or DEP) say they were heading on the wrong track. They thought they were doing the right thing."

"Let's get down to it. This was a pretty traumatic experience all the way to the top (of city staff)," he said. "When you're an organization you will make errors. The question is what are you going to do about it."

Other residents disagreed and said they believe City Manager Bill Harriss ordered the dumping, which Harriss has denied.

When the commission voted for the plan, with Commissioners George Gardner and Susan Burk absent, a few people who attended the meeting yelled out "He (Harriss) should be fired!" and "What about the arsenic in the dirt ..."

Regan met later with some of the public who had more questions about the city's plan.


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