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Doomed Deferred

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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: July 2, 2008

In the late 1980s Pasco County was contemplating what to do with its swelling stream of solid waste. It could create a new landfill, what people once called a garbage dump. There was only one small problem. Actually it was a huge problem. No one wanted the landfill created anywhere near them. That definitely was a problem, because there was hardly any place a landfill might have been created that wasn't near someone.

What to do? Eventually, the County Commission decided to hire a private firm to build and operate a plant that would take Pasco's garbage and burn it. The heat from the burning garbage would turn a turbine that would generate electricity the county could sell. The plan drew a skeptical murmur from environmentalists. Then the county announced where it was proposing to build the waste-to-energy plant, in the mainly rural area of northwestern Pasco usually referred to as Shady Hills. That sparked a roar of protest from residents of the area.

The plant, the protestors said, would pollute the air, making people sick. Even more ominously, some critics feared sinkholes would open beneath the ash pit, allowing contaminants into the deeper Floridan aquifer, the source of much of the region's drinking water. The commission OK'd the plant anyway and it went into service in 1991.

Zoom forward to last week, when the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation recognizes the Pasco Solid Waste Resource Recovery Facility and its operator, Covanta Energy, for going "above and beyond" the required environmental standards. This just goes to show predicting ecological doom can be a tricky business.

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