Landfill dispute may not be over

Company buys Waller County site despite rejection of planned project

The spirited fight over a proposed landfill in Waller County might not be over despite Texas regulators’ rejection of the project.

Green Group Holdings recently purchased the 723-acre parcel where the company had planned to build the landfill before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality turned down the project.

The move means the Georgia-based Green Group hasn’t given up on the project, known as the Pintail landfill. David Green, vice president of the company, said it will continue to explore how to move forward.

“The Pintail property has been under option to purchase for a number of years,” Green said in a statement last week. “After much consideration, we have decided to exercise the option and purchase the property.”

Citizens Against the Landfill, a grass-roots group in Hempstead, said the company’s purchase of the land indicated that the 5-year-old fight over the project will continue. The group contends that the landfill would harm the area’s water supply and economic future.

“As much as we hate to admit it, at this point we are convinced that the battle is not over,” the group said in a statement that called for a new round of fundraising.

TCEQ hasn’t received a new application for the project, spokeswoman Andrea Morrow wrote in an email. The commission rejected the Green Group’s application last October after concluding that the company hadn’t properly addressed the potential threats to groundwater.

The company appealed the ruling, but the agency denied it because it wasn’t filed on time, Morrow wrote.

Opponents also were heartened in February when the Green Group learned that it wouldn’t be able to “grandfather” in the rejected application on the project. The company had argued that a transfer facility had been approved for the site before the county and city putting in place ordinances to block the proposed dump.

The sale of the land from Marengo Family Properties was finalized June 8. The property was sold “as is,” and the agreement did not include rights to “oil, gas and other minerals” beneath it.