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KVUE News, June 23, 2008 By Jessica Vess

Hutto residents take a stand against landfill expansion

Hutto residents and city council members are taking a stand against a proposed landfill expansion. Operators at the Williamson County landfill are looking at a plan that would allow trash from outside the county to be dumped there anyway.
    
Those who live nearby say the landfill is big enough, and are afraid more trash will mean a bigger landfill.

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“It's gotten very, very big over the years and the smell has gotten very bad. There (are) birds always flying. It's not a good thing at all,” said Hutto resident, Shaylena Fulton.

The landfill has already expanded over recent years. Fulton is concerned a bigger site will hurt her property value.

“I don't see how it could get any bigger. It's already very, very big. It scares me because we're trying to improve our place here and make it a nice, comfortable place for us to live, but we're scared to put money into the place because we don't know what's going to happen with that and we don't want to live here if it's going to get bigger. It's already a big, nasty smelling thing,” said Fulton.

The operators of the landfill, Waste Management of Texas (WMI), say the company is in talks with the City of Killeen to accept nearly 100,000 tons of trash a year. It already accepts about 600 tons of municipal solid waste a day from the Williamson County area.

“To me it's almost exploitative if you're allowing, all of a sudden, Killeen to dump 100,000 tons of trash in here. What's next, what's the next shoe to drop? What's the next avenue to go?” said President of the Hutto Citizen’s Group, Steven ‘Bear’ Salfelder.

On Thursday, the Hutto City Council announced its opposition to the project.

“The Killeen deal was the tipping point,” said Salfelder.

Residents are worried Waste Management isn't operating the landfill responsibly.

“We're not sitting here saying, ‘We don't want the landfill and we don't want the expansion,’ we want somebody to be smart in doing it. Let's be reasonable about this,” said Salfelder.

Salfelder and the Hutto Citizen’s Group want Waste Management out of the picture.

Calls to the WMI office in Hutto Sunday afternoon were not immediately returned, but according to the contract between Williamson County and Waste Management, WMI would have rights involving control of the landfill and does not necessarily need permission to turn the county landfill into a regional facility.

The issue will go before Williamson County Commissioners. Until then, the deal between Waste Management and the City of Killeen could continue. Homeowners like Fulton will just have to wait and see how it develops.

A public forum is scheduled for Monday, June 30th for others to voice their thoughts on the latest plans for the Williamson County landfill.