Landfill plan draws fire

Landfill plan draws fire

St. Augustine residents voice opposition

KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 12/14/07


St. Augustine's agreement with the state to fix the city's illegal dumping of landfill material into a borrow pit could be put on hold.

On Thursday, Lincolnville neighborhood resident Tony Seraphim said he was going to file a petition against St. Augustine's consent order with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Because the landfill is in Seraphim's neighborhood, he can petition the city's agreement, which would freeze the contract while the petition was investigated, said John Regan, city chief operations officer.

"As far as I'm concerned, indictments are not out of the question," he said Thursday night at a Lincolnville Neighborhood Association meeting on the topic.

In 2005, city staff took dirt from an old landfill site on Riberia Street, in Lincolnville, and dumped it into a water-filled borrow pit on Holmes Boulevard.

To fix the massive mistake, the city struck an agreement with the state to put the materials back on the landfill site and form a 19-foot mound that's monitored to prevent groundwater intrusion.

But, at the meeting Thursday, residents said they were against that plan.

Ed Slavin, one of the speakers at the meeting, said dumping the material back into Lincolnville, a predominately black neighborhood, would be a case of "PIBBY, Place In Blacks Backyard."

"(Martin Luther King Jr.) said St. Augustine was the most lawless city in America," Slavin said. "We're here to tell you that's going to stop."

Slavin, and others at the meeting, wants the waste taken to a landfill.

The city scrapped that option because tipping fees alone could cost the city $1 million-$2 million. And putting the material back on the original site would cost about $800,000.

There were also very low traces of arsenic and other toxins found in the material, according to studies by laboratories paid by the city. Slavin wants an independent source to sample the material.

Regan said he would be happy to see that happen and would supply city funding for the sampling.

Among the roughly 50 people who attended the meeting were City Commissioners George Gardner and Errol Jones and several city employees. Members of DEP were also in the audience but did not speak at the meeting.

Regan said the city will host an informational public meeting on Jan. 10. Seraphim requested it be held, not at City Hall, but at the St. Paul AME church, site of Thursday's meeting.

"We want it in our neighborhood," Seraphim said. "We don't trust you."

Regan agreed with the request.

Carrie Johnson, a well-known resident who has lived in Lincolnville for years, said the city plan's for the landfill "is frightening to me."

"I have always felt like Lincolnville is the stepchild. We're the last ones to get any attention," she said. "I want to see Lincolnville be what it is, a great place."


Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/121407/news_news1_001.shtml

© The St. Augustine Record