Nutter publicly addresses commissioners' EPA testimony

TIFFIN – At the Seneca Commissioners' meeting Thursday, Ben Nutter, community engagement manager for WIN Waste Innovations confronted commissioners on a letter they wrote, officially opposing expansion of the landfill. "I wanted to come here on behalf of our almost 100 local employees that pay sales tax as a matter of fact here in Seneca County," he said. "They work here and earn their living here. We're aware of your Feb. 1 letter to the Ohio EPA. After reading that, we're unable to remain silent on that because it is filled with inaccuracies. "One of them being the first resolution that you folks passed was saying that (there would be) no expansion (of the landfill) while under consent order," Nutter said. "The consent order is no longer the guiding document. We're operating at 33% below our 2014 air permit, which is far below the consent order." In the Feb. 1 letter, it discusses a resolution that was passed in June 2022, which referenced a resolution the board at the time signed opposing any expansion at the landfill while it remained under a consent order. Also, the commissioners referenced they could not ignore WIN Waste's "track record of non-compliance with state and federal regulations". "I know that there's been insinuation by this board and others that we're somehow polluting ground water and/or surface water," Nutter said. "You don't have to take our word for it. But, if you don't believe us when we have third party engineering firms taking those tests twice a month for surface water, testing ground water twice a year. Your own health department comes out every quarter and does split sampling. The Ohio EPA and the health department have (said) the surface water meets primary drinking water standards." Also, in the letter, the commissioners referred to several photos they claim showed water dripping out of the bottom of a railcar near a residential area. They also claimed that "...rainwater poured into a rail car filled with waste, infiltrated the waste, and poured out the bottom." The letter also stated that the rail car was only one of thousands that "travel from the East Coast to Fostoria every year, intermittently dripping potential toxins when it rains or snows." "The Ohio EPA at the Feb. 5 meeting made it very clear that we are not impacting ground water. So, those insinuations are blatantly false," Nutter said. "We're really (concerned) about the discussions around the railcar that had a hole in it that was specifically shipped from one of our Ohio facilities to this facility had the green sticker on it that said, 'this car is for repair'. That was made out to be as though that's the normal shipping conditions of a car, which is not accurate. We believe you knew that. "We also believe you knew that on Feb. 5, materials in that rail car were tested and there was no hazardous material found in that car. Yet this board continues not to share that information with the public." The letter also alleged that: "Now the landfill wants to expand its size and capacity, opening the door for increased detrimental effects on the mental health of this community". They also included an article from the National Library of Medicine, that discusses the potential for "local industrial activity" to be a chronic stressor for neighborhoods, impacting the mental health of people living nearby. "A thing that really, as a Seneca County resident, frustrates me is that you accused the landfill of affecting the mental health of people," Nutter said of this portion of the letter. "But the only thing that affects the mental health of people that is happening, not from the landfill operations because we're safe and we can prove it with the data and the science. What effects it (the mental health of people) is the falsehoods that are sent out to the public and boards, such as yourself, elected officials that are responsible to the public to give them all the facts and the truth is wrong. "If this is a case where you are just uninformed or you have the wrong information, we look forward to working with you and giving you the right information. It is available in many places, we report it everywhere. However, if this was done intentionally by this board to mislead the public because you don't like out of state waste or whatever your cause may be, that is a travesty and its wrong," he concluded. "I know all three of you, I've known you a long time and that is wrong. I'm disappointed and our team members are disappointed as well. I'm happy to answer any questions or provide information to this board." The commissioners denied having any questions. __________________ Taiah Douglas contributed to reporting.