Waste Connections still plans to open a landfill in Harper County next year, having received its state permit. But opponents aren’t giving up their fight. A citizens group and a Harper County resident filed a notice in federal court last week of their intent to sue, The Hutchinson News reported. They and Sumner County have another pending lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court. No wonder our trash bills are so high.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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8 Comments
Lets keep sending it to Oklahoma. It’s a good place to put it.
Mr. Brownlee: Sorry, but you are wrong on most of your allegations. Many regional citizens including myself are contributing to the legal funds to block the Harper County landfill.
The purpose? In my case, I want to save the heretofor beautiful, always running, Chickasia River and its drainage basin from pollution by Wichita’s trash and garbage deposits. And in turn protect downstream city’s water supplies in Kansas and Oklahoma from pollution.
In regard to the money trail, Sedgwick County will lose millions of dollars in potential income from failure to provide a landfill here in Sedgwick County FOR DISPOSAL OF SEDGWICK COUNTY’S OWN TRASH!
The best location geology and drainage-wise is the city-owned so-called Furley site several miles northeast of the Kansas Coliseum. The soil there is of a type to retard seepage into underlaying soil.
But you are right, citizens who oppose the Harper County landfill are going to continue fighting this attrocity.
Why is Kansas still a century behind the rest of the world when it comes to solid waste management? Why do we not have realistic recycling? Why do I pay the same for trash service when I generate about 1/4 the average? Why do we still not have a real hazardous waste program?
I raised these question at City Council years ago with my small child son at my side. I have asked these questions again with three small children at my side – HIS children!
Until we are willing to actually do something about waste reduction we will continue to have such problems. Our City Council and now our County Commission have failed miserably in not dealing with this.
Ben Huie: You are 100% correct about the need for an effective recycling program in Wichita and Sedgwick County. Thank you for bringing it up.
I notice I mis-spelled the Chikaskia River’s name in the second reply above. The Chikaskia begins a few miles south of Pratt and runs southeasterly to Caldwell, Kansas where it passes into Oklahoma on its way to the Arkansas River and Tulsa. The broad shallow basin in which the proposed Harper County landfill would be located feeds into the Chikaskia River valley. As a youth, I fished and hunted along the pristine, shallow, but always flowing waters of the old Chikaskia River.
I’m not responding to any particular post here, but JWink’s comments brouht the following thoughts to mind.
Even the most rabid laissez faire capitalist types seem to become become “green” when the environmental threat is close to home. Protection of endangered species, the wilderness, and aquifers then become high priority. When the doo doo is going to be placed in their backyards, then they howl and moan to the state’s department of environmental protection, the EPA, the National Wildlife Sevice, the Justice Department, and the courts to protect them.
When there is no threat, however, these same people are quick to lobby for the abolition of many of these governmental entities..and to deplore “activist” courts that “legislate” from the bench.
Apparently shit smells like “rose fertilizer” when it’s across town, but it smells like shit when it’s on your own property.
Dumping trash near any river is just plain STUPID!
I grew up in Sumner County and have spent countless hours hunting, fishing, hiking, and doing wildlife photography along the Chikaskia River. I have also helped with several eduational field trips and other learning experiences in regard to the ecology of the Chikaskia.
You can access information about some of my past work and experience at my website (given above) or by access the following website.
http://www.knrc.ws/chikask.htm
Nobody wants a landfill near their home, whether there are ecological issues or not. No surprises here.