Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Town, county resolve dispute over landfills | www.palmbeachdailynews.com

The Town of Palm Beach can continue to use two dumping locations they own, without using Solid Waste Authority faculties. Neighbors of the sites have complained of dust and vermin caused by them, but the County has approved an agreement that lets the town continue its practice. From the article, click title for link.
The town hauls 13,000 tons of yard clippings and landscape leftovers off the island and to the sites each year. About 75 percent goes to the Skees site.
The town started dumping waste at the Okeechobee Boulevard site in the 1930s, long before the neighborhoods grew up around it and before tougher permitting requirements were enacted.
The Skees site, in an industrial zone, has been used since the 1960s.
The sites were permitted as a vegetation disposal dumps until 2006 when the classification changed to Class III landfill. That triggered different operational requirements for which the town had to seek variances from the state DEP.
On Monday, Burdick the agreement represents substantive progress. She said she would have preferred to see both sites closed, but that wasn’t possible because they predate today’s landfill regulations.
“Neither landfill meets the current code but because they are grandfathered-in, they will be allowed to remain,” she said.