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CBS 42 News Austin, January 20, 2009 By Alexis Patterson

Travis County residents fight landfill expansion

Imagine having 250 acres of garbage as your next door neighbor - and now the landfill company wants to expand. That's got some folks in Northeast Travis County upset - but the proposed expansion is now being considered by a judge.

The company that owns the landfill, BFI, says it's almost out of room at the site, and it's asking the state to let it put an additional 75 feet of trash on top of the hills that cover piles of garbage.

"This is just some of the garbage I've been picking up off the fence line and my fields," said Cecil Remmert, holding up a bag of trash he says he found in his yard, next to the landfill.

Remmert and his wife Evelyn say every time the wind blows, the landfill deposits trash in their yard and odors in the area.

"The landfill is not the right place any longer," said Evelyn Remmert. "There are too many houses around, too many people around."

The landfill company says it takes in 3,500 tons of trash at the site each day, and at this rate, it will run out of space in a couple of years.

"It has to go somewhere in the area," said Brad Dugas, a BFI representative. "It's a major community service."

Tuesday a state administrative judge began hearing arguments about whether the company should be allowed to vertically expand 125 acres of the site to be a maximum of 75 feet taller.

"Mind you, that 75 feet is a very small portion of that. It's also sloping up," said Dugas. The expansion "gives us more time to look for an alternative site to continue business in the area."

BFI made an agreement with the city of Austin to stop operations at the landfill in 2015, and the company tells CBS 42 the height may not even reach 75 more feet in that time.

The Remmerts aren't convinced - and say as long as the landfill is there, they have no choice but to stay on trash duty.

"When I bale my hay, and [trash] is baled up in the hay, and my cows eat it, it will kill them," said Cecil Remmert. "They can't digest it."

The Remmerts find the idea of more trash there equally hard to digest.

The judge will hear arguments about the expansion for the next week or two, then make a recommendation to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in the spring.

The company's agreement with the City of Austin requires TCEQ to improve its operations at the landfill, including better grass seeding and more erosion control. BFI says despite some neighbors' complaints, it's had only one violation since the landfill opened in 1981.