A local waste management company has filed to renew the 2002 permit for a potential commercial hazardous waste facility southeast of Roswell, a project that has garnered opposition in the past. Gandy Marley Inc., the corporation filing the permit, says the project presents little to no environmental risk.
But, for more than a decade, environmental groups and others have opposed the proposed landfill, not only because of its potential risks but also for a side issue about how the state agency in charge of the permit allegedly has a pattern of discriminating against the poor, the less educated and Spanish-speakers throughout the state during its public processes.
Now that the public comment period for the proposed Triassic Waste Facility ended Jan. 20, the New Mexico Environment Department will evaluate questions and concerns and decide whether to hold a public hearing in what has been a long history for a yet-to-be-constructed site.
Gandy Marley Inc. of Roswell submitted the request in 2011 to revise and renew the 10-year permit for the proposed facility. The 35-acre disposal site would be located on privately owned ranch land about 43 miles southeast of Roswell and about 3.5 miles off of U.S. Highway 380 on the way to Tatum.
“We would not be accepting nuclear waste,” said Mike Marley, secretary and treasurer of the corporation. “We would not be accepting liquids, radioactive waste or high-level PCBs. The waste would have to meet the criteria of the permit.” According to a state fact sheet, the permit also would prohibit toxic, explosive or ignitable wastes.
The renewed permit has more modest aims than the original, which was due to expire in 2012 but will remain active while the renewal process is ongoing. Under the new proposal, the company is proposing only the disposal of waste, not the treatment or storage of waste, and the permit covers only a landfill rather than a landfill, drum-handling unit, a roll-off container units, liquid waste storage, treatment tanks and surface impoundments.
Marley said the his company intends to accept hazardous waste shipped within the United States or from U.S.-owned facilities. “Our plan is to build (the facility) as soon as the market dictates that it would be profitable,” said Marley. “We don’t want to make the investment in this market right now.”
Gandy Marley Inc. is a partnership of two families that Marley said has been living in the area for more than four generations. They have operated two other waste sites for more than a decade. One is a landfill for oilfield wastes regulated by the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division that started about 10 years ago. The other is a soil-remediation site. That site, operating since about 1995, is regulated by the state Environment Department. The public comment period for the Triassic landfill ended after two extensions gave people 120 additional days to submit letters or emails.
To read the full story, visit http://rdrnews.com/wordpress/blog/2017/02/09/controversial-landfill-seeks-renewed-permit-facility-would-take-in-hazardous-waste-southeast-of-roswell/.