Role switch reverses landfill position
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
An aerial view of the proposed Calusa Green landfill site in east Charlotte County. Neighboring ranchers, citrus farmers and property owners are fighting to block the landfill which they say will devastate their quality of life, property values, businesses and surrounding ecosystem.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
Fred Hill, president of the Southwest Rural Landowners Association, prepares to take County Commission candidate for District 3 Bill Truex on a helicopter tour of east Charlotte County where a landfill is being proposed by developer Calusa Green LLC. Ranchers, citrus farmers and property owners are fighting to block the landfill which they say will devastate their quality of life, property values and surrounding ecosystem.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
An aerial view shows the size of the Charlotte County landfill on Zemel Road which zoning and planning officials say has capacity through 2027 and can be expandeed past 2050.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
A discarded garbage container and other types of debris sit in a retention pond in the county landfill on Zemel Road.
Opponents of the proposed Calusa Green landfill argue that a landfill has the potential to leak, devasting the local water supply and surrounding ecosystem.
EAST OF PUNTA GORDA — Back in 2005, when Omni Waste proposed a regional garbage dump across from the Babcock Ranch Preserve, then-Charlotte County Landfill Director Jim Thomson argued the landfill should be rejected because the county had no need for its capacity.
Thomson, who now works as CEO of the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center, since has been hired as a consultant for Calusa Green, a group of investors planning a similar regional landfill in the same area.
