Environmental Regulators Warn They Will Deny Permit for Controversial Pasco Landfill

The operator of the Hudson landfill was sued earlier this year by a neighbor who has been challenging its business operation for more than a decade now faces an even greater obstacle.

This week, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued a preliminary notice saying it intends to change its mind about issuing a new coastal landfill permit and instead deny the landfill permit extension. The agency says it no longer believes the company can convince them it is following the rules and law that govern these businesses.

The notice was posted to the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, where a separate legal dispute over the business operation is ongoing. According to that notice, the Department of Environmental Protection agreed to issue the permit, but then “department personnel inspected the facility on June 14, 2024.”

Using engineering drawings submitted by the company within the existing permit, public aerial images of the site and visual observations, the department confirmed that “the solid waste was disposed of outside the permitted area of ​​the facility.” This is a violation of several rules and the operator’s license.

Additionally, the agency reviewed submitted water tests that confirmed the company violated water quality standards in and around the site.

“Consequently, the applicant no longer provides reasonable assurance that the facility will be operated in accordance with the applicable requirements” of Florida laws and rules, according to the agency’s notice.

The notice also explains that the license applicant has an appeals process through the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings. As of Thursday, there had been no appeal.

According to Michael Dutko Jr., an attorney representing the landfill, the agency has not yet formally informed Coastal Landfill Disposal of the denial, although it has seen the draft filed in another court case. Because of this, there is no deadline for the company to appeal the decision.

Dutko also said Coastal Landfill Disposal disagrees with the conclusions the agency made in that draft about the operation and size of the landfill, saying “it is neither larger nor larger than permitted.”

He said he hopes the business is successful in obtaining a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection and that the landfill provides a needed service requested by the community.

At the beginning of this year the landfill’s neighbor, DCH Timber, filed a lawsuit asking for more than $50,000 in damages. The order is the latest in a years-long dispute over operations at the landfill and related businesses located on 170 acres at the end of Houston Avenue, two miles east of U.S. 19 in Hudson.

Coastal Landfill Disposal, Cash Development and Eric Cash, owners of the landfill and recycling center, and DCH Timber Inc., which owns 520 acres north of the landfill, have clashed over a variety of issues, including concerns that the landfill has failed Monitor groundwater to protect it from landfill contamination.

The complaint also accused the company of repeated invasion, “installation and maintenance of pavements, pipes, walls, fences, gates and other items and deposit of waste, contaminants and debris”.

This process is ongoing. Dutko said the neighbor’s lawsuits are baseless and simply a way to make his property more valuable.

The attorney representing DCH Timber said the Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to now deny the landfill permit speaks to the company’s habitual violations of rules designed to protect drinking water and the environment. “We believe this action should stop Coastal from dying over its habitual violation of regulations and blatant disregard for public health, safety and the property rights of its neighbors,” said attorney Scott McLaren of Hill Ward Henderson.

This is not the first dispute between the timber company and the landfill. In 2009, the logging company’s owner, Barbara Ryals, erected a fence in the middle of the private road that serves the area. She was protesting the construction of a road on her property at the landfill to move the heavy equipment needed at the landfill.

In addition to seeking renewal of the license from the state, the Coastal Landfill submitted paperwork to Pasco County in April seeking to increase the height of the landfill, a height already violated by the municipality according to the report. A previous effort for county approval failed, and Pasco officials have not yet followed through on the most recent request.

“Coastal Disposal Landfill has requested to amend its current operating license with Pasco County,” county spokeswoman Sarah Andeara said in an email Thursday. “Pasco County reviews and issues approvals for proposed developments that are subject to the conditions of approval, which include federal, state and other local requirements/approvals as appropriate.”