(The following story by Matt Suman appeared on the Advertiser-Tribune website on June 18.)
FOSTORIA, Ohio — Train cars filled with construction debris must be shipped to the Loudon Township landfill faster to reduce odors that have angered Fostoria residents.
The CSX railroad runs that north-south through the center of town has train cars parked fewer than 100 feet from homes on Williston Avenue. Elected officials met with residents, the solid waste district and landfill leaders Thursday to find solutions for homeowners and waste management officials.
The Seneca County Health Department, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Ottawa-Sandusky-Seneca Solid Waste District each had representatives look at the site. They said the cars were filled with construction and demolition debris, not garbage.
The solution to alleviate the odor is to get the trains to the landfill as quickly as possible, said Paul G. Barley, of Regus Industries, a logistics company from West Seneca New York that moves waste by rail and develops landfills. Dave Miller, superintendent of Sunny Farms Landfill,12500 W. CR 18, Loudon Township, said this could be done by establishing a more direct route to the landfill.
Barley said, “Hanging around doesn’t do any of us any good. We need to get the cars from point A to point B.”
He said most of the odor comes from loaded cars, not empty ones.
Judy Brown, 905 Williston Ave., Fostoria, said, “When we run into trouble is on the weekend. That’s the time we’re in our back yards. You know when there are cars back there when it’s dark because you can smell them.”
Noise from idle trains that have been left running for up to 24 hours without supervision has also been a problem, she said.
“That seems like a safety hazard to me,” she said.
In a letter to the Seneca County Commissioners, Drew Orient, business development coordinator for Sunny Farms Landfill, said CSX is preparing to add a second crew to move cars more quickly. He said that would give the site service six days, Monday through Saturday.
The letter also said CSX is considering routing the loaded cars in such a way that will limit switching in Fostoria. Sunny Farms has plans to install another 1,000 feet of track at the landfill site within the next 30 days.
Seneca County Commissioner Joe Schock told Brown, “The important thing to us is that you don’t feel like you’re being abandoned.”
The landfill has long-term plans to construct sufficient track to manage all incoming cars on site. This would require extending the track across TR 108 in Loudon township.
Schock said this is not a crossing where the cars would block the road.
He said the commissioners will meet with Fostoria Mayor John Davoli and Loudon Township trustees when Davoli returns from vacation to talk about plans for the crossing.
Officials from CSX did not attend the meeting. Dave Miller of Sunny Farms Landfill, said the CSX officials involved were on vacation.
Chris Strumsky, from the office of U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Old Fort), said, “That would be the congressman’s concern. They are one of the major players and they need to know what happened at the meeting.”
The commissioners plan to inform CSX officials of what they missed at the meeting.
Barley said there could be train cars filled with garbage, not only construction debris, passing through the area sometime in the future. He said he did not know how soon this would start.
Brown said, “I’d like to sell my house before then.”
Barley said he would talk to the marketing group to find out when this could happen. He said hopefully he could give an answer to Brown and the commissioners next week.
Brown said she has lived there for eight years and the train cars have already affected the property value of her home.