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Austin American Statesman, July 10, 2008 By Melissa Mixon

Hutto group now backs landfill sale; Williamson commissioners say they're interested but are also looking to negotiate new contract with operator.

Orlynn Evans remembers the unease among some residents a year and half ago when Williamson County commissioners discussed selling the county's controversial landfill.

The thinking then by some residents and environmentalists was that the county would lose control over the landfill if it slipped into private ownership, said Evans, a Hutto resident and member of Mount Hutto Aware Citizens group.

But — dismayed that commissioners aren't exercising more power over their landfill operator, Waste Management of Texas — a citizens group in Hutto is now saying otherwise.

The Hutto Citizens Group proposes that the county sell its landfill just north of Hutto in order to get more power over the site and get out of a contract that both they and commissioners say is bad and one-sided toward Waste Management.

The county has tried getting out of the contract before and even sued Waste Management in September because commissioners said the contract should have been competitively bid.

But whether the county will go for the proposal is another thing. Commissioners are working to renegotiate a contract with Waste Management. Putting the landfill up for sale is a move littered with legal questions as to whether the current contract would become void and whether the county could require the buyer to follow some of the requests in the citizen group's proposal. Among them are size and height restrictions of the landfill and a stipulation that only trash from the county could go into it.

Some commissioners fear that if a sale were to happen, Waste Management would sue.

Speaking of possible litigation, Commissioner Ron Morrison said he thinks there's "still room for that."

"And nobody wins in litigation," he said.

Don Smith, Waste Management's Central Texas manager, would not comment on whether his company would sue if the landfill is put up for sale. He did say, however, that it would "absolutely protect its agreement" with the county.

"I'm rather puzzled by (the citizens group proposal)," he said. "It seems to be a case of 'For sale by neighbor.' I appreciate what Hutto's trying to do with the landfill, but this is a decision that needs to be made by the Williamson County Commissioners Court."

The group's proposal includes clauses in the event that a lawsuit is brought forward. It states that any operator that wants to buy the landfill would have to agree to pay the county's litigation costs if a lawsuit occurs.

So far, representatives for Bobby Gregory, the owner of a rival landfill company, have said he would agree to pay litigation costs. (Gregory owns Texas Disposal Systems and has been considered by some county officials to be the instigator in the landfill controversy, though he's stated that people would be concerned about the landfill even if he weren't involved.)

Kerry Russell, an attorney hired by the county to renegotiate the contract, said commissioners are considering all of their options, though he has not been directed to

analyze the legality of selling the landfill.

He said the county's options are to either sell the landfill, renegotiate a contract, do nothing or challenge a May ruling that said the county did not have to bid out its contract with Waste Management, thus making the current contract between the two valid.

One issue involving a sale, he said, is that the county's current contract would not be void just because of a sale. He said it would probably carry over to whoever buys the landfill.

He said that in general, when something like this is sold, there's no way to enforce certain deed restrictions. Some restrictions proposed by the citizens group are a 1,000-foot buffer zone and a maximum height of 70 feet.

"The bottom line, should the county decide to sell the landfill, the process wouldn't be quick, and it'd be complicated," Russell said.

The county's contract has been a concern for residents and commissioners for some time, but it came to a head in May after they learned that Waste Management was negotiating plans with Killeen to bring its trash to the Williamson County Landfill.

Under the deal, about 100,000 more tons of waste would go to the landfill annually.

Commissioners oppose the plans but have said they can't stop them because they have no power under their contract to do so. Citizens contend otherwise.

Jeff Maurice, a spokesman for the Hutto Citizens Group, said the Killeen deal has caused "shock waves" in the Hutto community.

"And it's become clearer and clearer that (commissioners) are not going to do anything about it," he told Hutto residents during a public meeting last week about the proposed sale.

Robin Schneider, executive director of Texas Campaign for the Environment, said after the meeting that she supports selling the landfill if it means there would be more recycling and limits on its size.

The county is currently waiting to hear whether it can expand the landfill. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will probably review the permit to expand it in coming months.