Dade City Landfill Denied for second time

The Florida  Department of Environmental Protection shows no signs of approving the modified request for landfill in Dade City. They indicated that they plan to reject a new proposal by Angelo's Aggregate Materials to build a politically unpopular private landfill in east Pasco.

 2009 the Florida DEP  rejected the request, reporting that there were risks that a sinkhole could open below the landfill and send waste into drinking water aquifers and the nearby Green Swamp. This is an improvement over previous DEP decisions which would actually support developers in claiming drilling would not effect the acquifer or that these kind of projects had no environmental impact.

Naturally, Angelo was appealing that decision the 2009 decision and cam back with some modifications on their proposal. They made changes like  cutting the initial size of the landfill from 90 acres to 30. 

DEP report states  

“While we appreciate Angelo’s efforts to provide design and engineering safeguards, the proposed landfill is located on an active karst area, where much of the specific geology and hydrogeology is unknown. If an engineering failure did occur as a result of verified sinkhole activity, contaminant migrating to the Floridan Aquifer could potentially impact the environmentally-sensitive Green Swamp and sources of drinking water."

There is plenty of opposition to this project as demonstrated by local organization Trash to Ash - Pasco Landfill Issue