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Scenic Pit To Be or Not to Be

5/21/2015

1 Comment

 
Tonight at the May 21, 2015 Richfield Village Board meeting item 4D was regarding a report on the property at 609 Scenic Road.  Administrator Jim Healy read a prepared statement. Since no written statement was available at the meeting the following tries to capture as best as possible the verbal statement by Administrator Jim Healy.

 
It is and always has been the position of the Village of Richfield that local approvals are required to be obtained before any land filling operations can commence at 609 Scenic Road. Over the last few months there have been some confusion in determining what approvals and/or what processes exactly Scenic Pit LLC was seeking through the State of Wisconsin. On May 13, 2015 the Village was notified by the attorney for Scenic Pit LLC that they were abandoning their plan to seek local approvals and instead believed that they met all necessary requirements to dump clean fill 6 days a week for the next 10 years. They came to this conclusion because the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources issued a WPDES construction site storm water runoff permit to Richard and Evone Holtz.  Scenic Pit LLC's attorney stated that "Scenic Pit LLC intends to proceed with operational plans approved in the attached permit without further application for local approvals and negations/arbitration pursuant to WIS DOT's 289.221M."  To be clear the Village has received confirmation from the Wisconsin DNR that local approvals are in fact required by Scenic Pit LLC prior to any operations commencing. This conclusion reached by the Wisconsin DNR and it's legal council and the Village of Richfield and it's legal counsel affirms that months of research and study that was conducted by staff along with thousands of dollars spent utilizing professional services. In light of these facts we continue to be prepared to take any and all necessary action in order to protect the Village.


The attorney for Scenic Pit LLC during public comments implied there is no desire to go to court. 

To anyone in the audience it is possible that only time will tell if this issue has been put to bed.

1 Comment
Danah link
5/21/2015 03:40:20 pm

"They came to this conclusion because the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources issued a WPDES construction site storm water runoff permit to Richard and Evone Holtz."

The conclusion to abandon seeking local approvals came from Wisconsin Law:

"Exemption from regulation under s. 144.44 (7) (g) (now s. 289.43 (8)) preempts municipal regulation. DeRosso Landfill Co. v. City of Oak Creek, 200 Wis. 2d 642, 547 N.W.2d 770 (1996), 94-0440."

The WI Supreme Court decision on DeRosso vs City of Oak Creek

https://www.wicourts.gov/sc/opinion/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&seqNo=16901

The regulations, enacted pursuant to an express legislative grant of authority in Wis. Stat. §§ 144.44(7)(g) now Wis. Stat. §§ 289.43 (8), exempt clean fill facility operators from the requirement that they apply for local approvals. If such operators need not even apply for local approvals, we fail to see how, as the City suggests, they could nevertheless be subject to them. It is manifestly absurd to instruct a prospective land fill operator that it need not apply to a municipality for permission to open a facility while simultaneously stating that the same municipality's ordinances govern whether and under what conditions the facility can be opened and operated."

The language is very clear.


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