DEP, County Must Move On Landfill Cell

The issue: Permit delays for new landfill cell could cost taxpayers

unnecessary millions.

Our opinion: Department of Environmental Protection and county officials need to quit fooling around.

In these dire economic times, there's simply no excuse for government to waste millions of tax dollars because a state agency and county government can't work together in a timely manner to get a landfill project built.

County officials are complaining the Florida Department of Environment Protection continues to delay issuing a permit for construction of a new 26-acre "cell" at the county's 366-acre landfill site on U.S. 98 north of Brooksville.

Nearly three years into the design and permitting phase, and the county is still waiting for a permit from the DEP to start construction.

That's ridiculous.

Either the county is completely inept in its dealings with the DEP to secure the permit or the DEP is so mired in bureaucratic red tape, it can't do its job efficiently.

County officials are pointing the finger at DEP.

We suspect both parties are to share in the blame.

Either way, why should you care?

Because it could cost all of us a bundle.

If Hernando County is unable to construct the new cell at its landfill by January 2010, capacity will be reached at the existing cell. With no place to store the mountains of trash and garbage Hernando Countians discard each day, it will have to be shipped to other landfill sites outside our county.

That's expensive.

According to Utilities Director Joe Stapf, it could cost Hernando County residents an additional $50 per ton, or about $3.6 million based on an average of 200 tons per day, six days per week over a 60-week period.

Yikes!

For the county to absorb those costs, homeowners alone would have to pay an additional $44 each year on top of the county's current $60 solid waste disposal assessment. That doesn't include the cost of tipping fees to commercial haulers. If their tipping fees go up, you can bet your curbside trash pickup fees will climb as well.

Talk about a double whammy.

At Tuesday's county commission meeting, commissioners agreed to explore the possibility of transferring money from the county's general fund to the utilities department to help offset the extra charges for hauling garbage out of the county.

Apparently, they may have no other choice. We sure hate to see a property tax supported fund propping up the finances of a proprietary fund, even if County Attorney Garth Coller says it's legal as long as the money is paid back.

Commissioners also agreed to send a letter to the DEP asking the agency to expedite the permitting process.

"Pretty please" might help.

Commission Chairman Dave Russell asked the $3.6 million question: "Why should the taxpayers be burdened with direct increases to their garbage fees due to a permitting quagmire?"

They shouldn't.

If DEP officials can't get on the ball and issue the permit in a timely manner, maybe the DEP should be responsible for the extra costs of trucking our garbage out of county.

If county officials are at the root of this "permitting quagmire," then somebody's head should roll.

Either way, the taxpayers are sick and tired of paying through the nose because their government operates so ineffectively and inefficiently.