Carrollton-CS 890129Wilmer residents
fighting landfi'll
Continued ~om P~e ~l. ~law o~ates ~ven ~tary
In 19~, prote~ing residen~ Fo~ Wo~h, soutff of ~ Free.
watched as truc~ fill~ with lead- way, Hildreth ~d. ~aw o~ra~s
dum.d near the city. In the l~t two ~x Canad~ province.
years, r~iden~ futflely compI~n~ S~s~ ~er ~d he ~ ~6
waste companies applied for ~mits and that the co~ict will ~ wO~. ~.
of ....
new landfill within a mile of the "If we're succ~ul in the
~e Trinity ~iver Authority ~ we'll ~ g~ cor~rate
hundred yards from the ~ld~ns' Company officials have '
front door. A recent environmental li~ed a br~hure and attend~ pu~
~udy found t~t fish taken from the lic meetings to answer ques~o~
fiver near Malloy Bridge Road had and ~uage public fears a~ul
high levels of toxic chemicals, health and environmental ha~r~
In spite of the area's recent his- ~ker ~id.
to~, resi~n~ have felt more em- Concerned Ci~zens memory.
~wered than helpless these past ~e Wilmer ~ea has ~n ~t~
few w~. Environmental activi~ ~cause of its slow economic~aafl
~ch as ~bette Higg~ns, dire~or of residential ~ow~, its aging pop~a-
~or the P~ple Inc., have offered eh- tion and a ~rcep~on that r~s
couragement, are not sophis~cated enou~ ~o~
Dallas County Commissioner mount serious op~tion. ~.,
Chris V. ~mos, who oppos~ the ~ker all.greed. He said
l~dfill in an Octo~r letter to the Wilmer landfill site is the mosi
~ate health department, and state nomical and g~logically sound 1~
Rep. Glenn Repp, R-Duncanville, cation in the county.
sent representatives to a packed "It was the be~ site we could fin~
Concerned Citizens meeting ~urs- when~we went l~ng," ~ker said.
"We're organized became we the fewest n~ber of ~ople. It's. ag-
know we're dealing with profe~ion- ricultural land. There are no ~-
als," Baldwin said. visions planned anywhere nearby?
~ause of mounting support, L.D. Hanc~k; a permit engineer
Concerned Citizens is providing for thestate health department, said
mundtrip bus transportation to and the land around Wilmer has~ the
from Tuesday's hearing. Residents kind of soil ~ a deep, hea~ clay for-
r~ntly chose topics to research in marion ~ that is conducive to land-
pre~ratio'n for the hearing and se- fills.
l~t~ about a dozen speakers to ad- Contamination "won't percolate
dre~ the topics in ~ logio~] pro,res- through heavy ol~y like it will
Thedisputemaybealongone. won'tleachintothewatersy~em.
Concerned Citi~ns has retained It's nothing against Wilmer or 'the
Henry, Kelly and Bunch, an A~tin people around there."
law firm specializing in environ- Baldwin said' he ~lieves that the
mental cases. Sanford, the group's clay is unsuitable for a landfill and
spokesman, and business associate that environmental exerts Will
W. Ray Wallace own substantial prove that. When the earth on his
acreage near the pro~sed landfill property dries, it cracks into wide,
and have retained their own attor- bottomless faults, he said.
neys. Despite the efforts of Baldwin
W.H. Hilton, president of Con- and others, area residents have no
cerned Citizens, said property vol- political leadership to help pr~sure
ues are at stake, state officials. Although the city of
"This thing could be an economic Wilmer opposes the landfill, leaders
and put a dump on top of me. We're Wilmer City Administrator Wil-
going to fight this thing down to the liam Mahone seemed resign~ to the
last straw." possibility of the landfill.
Laidlaw officials are undaunted "It's going to ~ hard to ~at,'
by the opposition's growing energy Mahone said. "~e citize~.~
and organization, determined to go down fight~
"We ex.ct .op~sition," s~d Da- it's got to be somewhere and it~
vid Hildreth, a landfill o~rations ~ in Addison, Carrollton,~ ~
~er ~ in N~h Richland ardson. It Ceminly won t: ~