New landfill surprises neighbors

BENNETT – People living in an unincorporated part of Adams County say they woke up Saturday morning to find a garbage dump under construction across the road from their homes.

"At 5 o'clock you don't expect to have earth movers moving down your road," said neighbor Tom Swallow. "They could have at least informed us."

The 164-acre landfill site sits at the corner of Schumaker Road and East 88th Avenue, north of Bennett.

The confusion over the suddenly-appearing landfill is rooted in a 1993 Certificate of Designation filed with Adams County. It gives Five Point Development Company the right to establish a coal ash disposal facility. Coal ash, also known as fly ash, is produced by coal power plants.

Swallow says he and his neighbors knew about the plans for a fly ash dump when they built their homes near the site. They were not concerned about the ash.

"It's just like bringing dirt out," said Swallow.

However, when the bulldozers rolled in Saturday morning, they were coming to build a regular landfill. It will contain household garbage, not fly ash. Swallow and his neighbors are outraged at the switch.

In the 14 years since the original Certificate of Designation, there have been transfers of property, a lawsuit and the sale of companies involved in the complicated project. Rob Coney from the Adams County Planning Department said the transition from fly ash to regular garbage came in 2005.

A request was made by Five Point to use the site for household waste. After review by the Colorado Department of Health, Adams County approved the plan.

"That's an administrative decision-making process," Coney explained. "That doesn't mean there isn't a full record for public review, but it doesn't go through a public hearing process."

Coney says even if neighbors of the landfill site did their due diligence before buying their properties, they would not have known about the change, unless they thought to ask years after their purchase.

"I would be surprised, too," Coney said.

Neighbors told 9NEWS they feel the change of use is significant enough to warrant public hearings or at least public notice. Coney says that is not required by law in this case.

Two real estate agents selling properties near the landfill site tell 9NEWS they were also unaware of the new landfill plans.

Swallow wants to know why Five Points did not go door-to-door and tell homeowners that after 13 years without development, a new landfill was about to be constructed.

"I would have hoped that the contractors could have at least engaged in some public outreach to say, 'Next week we're going to bring some graders out'," said Coney. "Unfortunately that didn't happen and we were as surprised as the property owners were."

A representative of Five Points emailed 9NEWS to say the company is "sensitive to the needs of our neighbors."

Swallow plans to attend a meeting of the Adams County commissioners on Wednesday to plead his case.

He said it is tough to tell what is worse, the landfill or the surprise.

"I don't like what's happening, but how it's happening has got to be the most disheartening thing about the whole thing," he said.