Waste Management of Missouri pays settlement - Municipal Recycling - landfill case - Brief Article

Recycling Today, May, 2002

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Waste Management of Missouri have reached an agreement with the help of the State Attorney General's Office to settle alleged violations at the Courtney Ridge Landfill in Sugar Creek.

The $1 million settlement includes a penalty of $250,000 that was paid to the Jackson County School Fund and $750,000 that was paid for tonnage fees owed to the department's Solid Waste Management Fund.

The money paid toward the tonnage fees ($750,000 for back tonnage plus interest) went to the Solid Waste Management Fund. The fund provides money to promote recycling, waste reduction and education programs in Missouri.

Waste Management operated the landfill from its opening in 1996 until July of 2000 when Allied Waste Industries purchased it.

The $250,000 penalty addresses alleged violations relating to overfill and to material from the Corp of Engineers Blue River Project rechannelization. During the first six months of 2000, Courtney Ridge Landfill exceeded its permitted height by placing more than 300,000 cubic yards of waste above the landfill's approved contours, violating the Missouri Solid Waste Management Law and regulations.

"The overfill is serious because it violates a basic condition of the permit, which limits where waste can and cannot be placed at a permitted disposal area," Jim Hull, director of the department's Solid Waste Management Program, says. Permit conditions are a critical part of the regulatory controls placed on landfills, according to the agency.

During the channelization of the Blue River, the landfill received materials from the excavation that required payment of tonnage fees, which were not submitted to the department. To resolve this, Waste Management paid the $750,000 in back tonnage fees and interest to the Solid Waste Management Fund.

In addition to the monetary settlement, Waste Management has contracted with Allied Waste to relocate a significant portion of the overfill to an area of the landfill that can accommodate the waste.