The Santa Rosa County Commission unanimously denied Bluewater Holdings SRC, Inc. a permit to operate a Construction and Demolition Debris Disposal Facility at Thursday's meeting.
The proposed East Milton C&D Facility off Jeff Ates Road was permitted in January 2008 through the board but the owner failed to follow through with the annual renewal process.
Bluewater Holdings attempted to renew the operational permit in February of 2012, but they were asked to reapply.
The permit was again brought before the board on Thursday and denied. The initial recommendation placed on the commission's agenda for Thursday was to deny the permit due to failure to meet financial disclosure requirements. Bluewater Holdings had not put in place the $871,000 bond, which was the calculated amount required to cover closure and cleanup for the initial 16 acre disposal area. However, the company had since secured the bond and requested approval of the permit at Thursday's meeting.
The landfill was an issue for several residents, who expressed concern about the proposed facility's proximity to the wells that provide their drinking water.
According to County documents, a potable well location survey certified that there are no private wells within 500 feet and no community wells within 1,000 feet of the proposed location.
Robert Cole, chairman of Santa Rosa County Commission, said at Thursday's meeting that he wants to see the county purchase the land from Bluewater Holdings and put it toward recreation or conservation use to prevent the permit from being issued from the court.
Since Bluewater Holdings met all technical requirements set by the county and state and have secured the bond they can ask the court to issue the permit without the County's vote.
The proposed 158 acre facility would have an initial disposal area of 16 acres and the ultimate disposal footprint could consist of approximately 127 acres, totaling 18 cells, according to county documents. Bluewater would need to get an operational site permit to expand beyond the initial 16 acre disposal area. There would be four ground water monitoring wells installed and sampled semi-annually with the results submitted to the Federal Department of Environmental Protection for compliance with state ground-water standards.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: County denies permit for landfill in East Milton