By Kathy Campbell, for the CVPost
If you live in the town of Seymour, you’d probably guess the stink is coming from the Advanced Disposal landfill.
You’d be mostly right!
Advanced Disposal currently pays the City of Eau Claire, County of Eau Claire and Town of Seymour $1.67 for every ton of garbage it collects. Representatives from the three governmental units form a committee when the company wants to expand the landfill, to set the contract terms.
No resident living within one mile of the landfill has ever been appointed to this committee. A landfill expansion has been requested four times in 20 years with no representation, consideration or relief for the neighbors living within one mile of the landfill!
Currently, Advanced Disposal is asking to increase the landfill’s size both horizontally and vertically, to accommodate an additional 4.18 million cubic yards of solid waste! In 2018, 30% of the trash came from Minnesota and Iowa.
Yes, it does stink, and causes litter, dirt, noise, unsightly view, heavy traffic and vermin. Advanced Disposal says it wants to be a good neighbor, but that is just not possible under present conditions. No one likes a neighbor that causes these problems!
This time, the Seven Mile Creek Neighborhood has taken a stand. We asked the Committee to consider what other Wisconsin cities and towns have done for 20 years to protect their residents living within a mile of an Advanced Disposal landfill.
Wisconsin Rapids, Muskego, Mayville and other communities have negotiated with Advanced Disposal to receive annual payments for the impact on their quality of life and to provide property value guarantees. However, the current proposal from the Committee does not ask for compensation or property value guarantees favorable to Seven Mile Creek residents.
This neighborhood is carrying – alone – the heavy burden of having a landfill as a neighbor and that’s not fair!
So yeah! That stinks too!
Please help make the Eau Claire area a healthier and safer place to live for everyone! Encourage the Town of Seymour Board, Eau Claire City Council and Eau Claire County Board to find a fair and balanced solution to the problems the Seven Mile Creek Neighborhood faces daily from Advanced Disposal’s landfill operation.
Tell them to compensate and protect the residents in our neighborhood from the negative impact of living with a landfill in our backyard. With the Committee’s help, the next contract could be more favorable for residents and help Advanced Disposal act like a little bit better neighbor.
Kathy Campbell has lived in the Town of Seymour since 1996. She formed the Seven Mile Creek Neighborhood in 2019 to inform and unite the residents living within one mile of the Advanced Disposal landfill. She was a School Counselor at Northwoods Elementary School in Eau Claire until retiring several years ago.
Kathy Campbell says
Thank you for publishing my Opinion of an important issue to the Seven Mile Creek Neighborhood, and hopefully, the Chippewa Valley. I liked that you followed my article with one about transparency regarding groundwater.