Operating plan is approved
Jefferson-Belmont Regional Solid Waste Authority plan for 15 years
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
< -- Return to News
WINTERSVILLE - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has approved a 15-year operating plan submitted earlier this year by the Jefferson-Belmont Regional Solid Waste Authority.
Patrick Lanaghan, executive director of the solid waste authority, said he was notified Monday of the approval by the OEPA director.
"We are obviously very happy and very pleased. It has been a very long process that required a lot of manhours. We were assisted in writing our operating plan by Jaz Environmental Inc. of Cincinnati," said Lanaghan.
The plan was hand delivered by Lanaghan to the OEPA in July after the solid waste authority received the required approval by government entities in Jefferson and Belmont counties.
The agency had been operating under a plan written and mandated by the OEPA in July 2004.
The new 15-year operating plan will be the first time the solid waste authority has operated outside of the control of the OEPA.
"When I was interviewed for the executive director's job in December 2004, I was asked if I could get an operating plan ratified by both counties. I can tell you today that I can and have done so," declared Lanaghan.
Mark Thomas, chairman of the solid waste authority and a Belmont County commissioner, credited Lanaghan, his staff and the Authority for, "total turn around from where we stood with the OEPA six years ago."
"The authority staff and members and the committee that worked very hard on the plan made the difference. The final plan required very few changes before the OEPA approved the document. And I see the final approval with very little fanfare as an example of the respect the OEPA now has for our Authority," stated Thomas.
"We saw ratification by the elected governments representing 60 percent of the population in Jefferson County and by the elected officials representing 75 percent of the Belmont County residents. The two largest cities in our district, Steubenville and Martins Ferry, approved the plan as well as the county commissioners in both counties," said Lanaghan.
"We were pretty sure the proposed plan would be ratified because the OEPA was receptive to our plan when it was first submitted, and we made the requested changes as the plan was reviewed," said Lanaghan.
"We will now be able to proceed with new programs and expand on existing plans to better serve the residents of Jefferson and Belmont counties," said Lanaghan.
"We can now officially fund and implement the Environmental Enforcement Officer program. We can start looking at expanding the curbside recycling programs in our communities. And we can now pursue financial grants for local government entities, nonprofit agencies and our schools," according to Lanaghan.
"We saw very successful e-cycling and hazardous waste collections this year, and now we will be able to expand those collections in the future," said Lanaghan.
"This is a great day in solid waste management. This is a great day for us because we can move from a plan written by the OEPA to our own plan. We can now prepare to do even better things for both counties," stated Thomas.
"I give credit to past board members as well as the current board for working through this process and getting this plan ratified in both counties," added Thomas.
The new plan has been in an evolving draft form since last year and has undergone several fine-tuning revisions since then.
"We have now gone from one end of the spectrum to the other end," Thomas said. "We will have continued efforts as to recycling. The more we do, the better we are long-term. We will see the semblance of a reduction of local waste going into the landfill.
"This authority has and will continue to make great progress to do what needs to be done under Ohio law," Thomas said.
"I see an ongoing evolution of the solid waste authority. There will be drastic positive changes going forward. We will be more visible, more verbal and more responsive to the public," Thomas promised.
< -- Return to News
