FOSTORIA, Ohio — WIN Waste Innovations' Sunny Farms landfill has been a topic of conversation for years in Seneca County, and it was once again Monday night in Fostoria.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency predicts the landfill will be full by the end of 2025, and now WIN Waste Innovations is seeking permits from the EPA to allow its expansion.
On Monday night, the public got a chance to weigh in on these permits for the landfill at a public hearing, and hundreds of Fostoria residents showed up to express their frustration with the dump and desire to see the landfill shrink, not expand.
According to WIN representatives and the OEPA, everything complies, but people at the meeting said the landfill is affecting their health and their way of life.
"Would any of you at that front table here like to live near the landfill? "One attendee said to the panel of OEPA scientists receiving questions. She received no response from the panel.
"And you out there, please stand if you're opposed to the landfill," she said, pointing to the crowd.
Hundreds of people stood up at once.
That was just one of a series of heated questions thrown at the EPA board, making clear area residents want nothing to do with an expansion of the landfill.
"We don't want any of this trash to come anymore," another attendee said to the panel.
The OEPA said it is considering three permit applications: one is to expand the landfill's permitted space, another has to do with a vertical expansion of a section of the landfill and, finally, an air pollution control permit.
Fostoria business owner and lawyer Alicia Roshond was one of the attorneys in the 2019 class action suit against Sunny Farms.
She said Monday night's anger came from issues that the residents at the meeting can't explain.
"You have water that absolutely has changed," she said. "We see photographs of these trains coming in dripping ooze."
Roshond is referring to photos like the one below:
But Brian Ezyk, Sunny Farms' vice president of landfills, said there was nothing in those cars that should make people worried.
"The material that comes in the rail cars is construction and demolition material, and so it doesn't present a significant risk," he said.
In fact, Ezyk said the landfill as a whole has been shown, through the company's own testing, to be safe.
"There is no impact to the surface water at the site, the ground water at the site or the soil in this site," he said.
OEPA Chief Community Officer Archie Lunsey said the agency's tests show the same results. But he said the EPA won't make a final decision before they get feedback from the community.
"No decisions have been made at this point," he said. "What we're doing is weighing that feedback with the technical merits of the proposal."
But faced with a possible 219-acre expansion bringing in nearly double the amount of waste, people present in the meeting made clear they're tired of trash.
"People have to dig deeper and recognize what the community desires are," Roshond said. "We live with this."
WIN representatives told WTOL 11 if the permits aren't passed, the landfill will no longer be operational by the end of 2025, not only causing around 100 workers to lose their jobs, but knee-capping a major source of income for the county.
As of Monday night, there is no timeline for when the OEPA will make a decision on the permits.