Residents pledge to stop Arbor Hills expansion

"We are not going to stand down!"

The comment by a Northville Township resident captured the frustration, anger and collective response to Arbor Hills' announced plans to eventually expand the landfill that has been heavily criticized for odors, increased traffic and public concerns for health hazards.

The meeting was called by Kelly Rooney, district manager for Advanced Disposal, which owns Arbor Hills, to "start a conversation" with Northville Township residents. The gathering followed Advanced Disposal's early September decision to withdraw its initial request to expand the landfill on the southwest corner of Napier and Six Mile roads in Salem Township.

The request and subsequent withdrawal was made to the Washtenaw County Solid Waste Plan Committee, which has been updating its master plan.

"We really want this to be a listening session," Rooney said, adding the company's lack of conversation with Northville Township residents prompted the expansion withdrawal.

But Rooney, who was put in charge of Arbor Hills in January, also made it clear that eventually Advanced Disposal will request an expansion. Before that request, however, Rooney said she wants Arbor Hills to be a good neighbor by improving transparency and resolving odor and truck traffic issues.

While residents were not surprised by Rooney's announcement, they spent a good part of the meeting making it clear they would continue to fight expansion and continue to demand a resolution to the continuing odor problems and increased truck traffic on Napier and Six Mile roads.

"We will fight you every step of the way," Napier Road resident Bruce Leonard said.

He is among a group of Napier Road residents — in Northville and Salem townships — who have long complained about the growing number of trucks on the gravel north-south route. His neighbor, Debbie Brown, told Rooney she was awakened before dawn Monday by trucks that made her bed vibrate: "I didn't even have to drop a quarter in it!"

Others, including resident Ron Pawlak, who lives off Six Mile, continued to hammer Rooney about trucks and the traffic hazards. "It shakes the windows!" He later likened the landfill and its problems and potential expansion to "taking a pig and putting lipstick on it."

Rooney acknowledged the problems, adding that work continues with truckers. She has a meeting with the federal Environmental Protection Agency in November regarding the landfill's odor violations that were issued against Arbor Hills. While Advanced Disposal owns the landfill, Republic Services owns the gas wells operation.

"We know that problem has not been completely resolved," Rooney said, referring to the truck traffic.

When the traffic and odor issues are resolved, Arbor Hills will then likely request an expansion north of Six Mile, where the company has been buying property along Napier Road. "I don't believe it will happen in the next couple of years," Rooney added.

Northville Township Supervisor Bob Nix later told the Northville Record that he and trustees Marjorie Banner and Fred Shadko have spent countless hours working on the landfill issues, including urging Arbor Hills to meet with residents and efforts to curb the truck traffic on Napier, as well as to resolve the odor issues through the state Department of Environmental Quality. The township board also issued a position paper documenting its opposition to landfill expansion.

"We have spent hundreds of man-hours on this," Nix said.

Despite Rooney's attempts to foster a neighborly relationship with residents, she was consistently chided for the landfill's problems and attempt at expansion.

"This is a Washtenaw County expansion. Put it in Washtenaw County — go west," said Matthew Wilk, a Northville school board member, who announced the board's steadfast opposition to an expansion.

In response to residents' demands to close the facility, Rooney said Advanced Disposal made a large investment and has a "long-term vision" on the 2000 purchase of Arbor Hills. An investment would not have been made if Arbor Hills was expected to have a short life, she added.

Many residents, including a man who invested $1.5 million when he bought his home in Northville Township, told Rooney home buyers were told the landfill would become a ski run — not an expanded landfill.

A physician who moved from Canton to Northville Township told Rooney to "get out, plain and simple" and described her cough and migraines — ailments she did not have before she moved near the landfill. "The biggest thing this community wants is a project to move you out!"

Resident and trash hauler Mike Smith, who interrupted the physician and walked toward her as she spoke, said the roads are congested with Salem commuters, not garbage trucks. He was booed until he left, but not before he added, "If you don't have the landfill, then where are you going to take your garbage?"

"Canada!" a resident shouted.

Resident Marcie Gates told Rooney, "We do not trust you. We do not respect you. We don't trust anything you have to say. It's like a tumor that keeps growing."

A number of residents expressed concern about potential health hazards from the landfill, as well as an expected drop in their property values. "I admit I was ignorant," said Tracy Birkenhauer, who founded Stop Arbor Hills, a grassroots effort to prevent landfill expansion.

Salem resident Cynthia Spurr told Rooney that families moved to Salem and Northville townships for the space and the atmosphere. While she admitted Salem residents do not pay township property taxes, due to the large revenue reaped from the landfill, Spurr said she would be willing to take on taxes to prevent an expansion.

"If you expand, my property value is worth shit — excuse my language," Spurr said, adding "I feel for people of Northville Township," because Salem officials are saying little if anything about the landfill.

jmaliszews@hometownlife.com | 248-396-6620 | Twitter: @jmaliszews