The Ohio EPA is considering a permit for a waste landfill in Madison Township in Columbiana County. 

West Point Renewables wants to turn their current transfer station on White Road into a solid waste landfill but people living in the area have several concerns. 

“We don't want more trash, more contaminates,” Jamie Nentwick of River Valley Organizing said. 

Nentwick works with a group of residents called MADcad or Madison Township Citizens Against the Dump. Some living near the potential landfill site are worried about smells or plumes of dust that could come from the waste. 

“Inhaling different microparticles … it's dangerous to people that have an elevated risk of respiratory issues,” Nentwick said. 

Ed Vogel, one of the owners of the potential landfill said there will be no smell to the residents because workers would harvest the methane gas that makes that smell. That gas would actually serve a dual purpose and be used in West Point Renewables trucks. 

“My people understand that if I can drive around my site and smell it then I’m losing money,” Vogel said. 

Other residents are concerned that the water will run off the waste and carry contaminants into Little Beaver Creek that runs around the site. Nentwick said that run-off could reach nearby wells which many residents rely on. 

Vogel told 21 News they have a double barrier around the site to catch the run off before it gets to the creek and they have set up detection systems to continuously test for the run off. 

“Any water that does come through the trash hits the top liner .. and is pumped into tanks which are double contained and we’ll have to either have a treatment plant on site or it has to go to another approved treatment plant,” Vogel said. 

But Nentwick doesn’t believe it will be enough. 

“Not everything as we know works how we would hope it to … as is always done over nature it will find a way it will find another route,” Nentwick said. 

Several residents have reached out to 21 News about potential negative impacts the landfill will have on local wildlife - specifically the bald eagle nests that are near the site. 

“I know that if you do search online there are landfills where eagles do like to come and eat but with different chemicals, we know over years byproducts that are thrown away that aren’t supposed to thrown away, it's just not a healthy environment we'd like to see our wildlife flourish in,” Nentwick said.

Vogel said they will be covering the waste every night with soil, just like they do at their other landfills, which will prevent the birds and other animals from eating anything.

Vogel told 21 News over the phone that West Point Renewables will follow every requirement from the Ohio EPA including the quarterly testing. 

“I went above and beyond what Ohio EPA’s requiring,” Vogel said. “...we’re a family owned business I would rather, so that my son doesn’t have to worry about it or his family as we go forward, that anybody else be liable for it.”

However, Nentwick and other residents feel they can't trust the owners to properly report issues or the Ohio EPA.  

“We feel like it's time that we should be able to protect our environment and our families and our water and our animals,” she said. “It’s time.”

The Ohio EPA will be holding an information session about the landfill Thursday, Feb. 29 6 p.m. at the West Point Church of the Nazarene.

They will also hold a public hearing on Thursday, April 4 at 6 p.m. at West Point Church of the Nazarene.

Written comments about the landfill will be accepted until April 11.