Pasco Landfill issue gets complicated

Very complicated. Lots of politics, lots of money. A recent article in the St Pete Times explains the battle lines. Essentially, large Pasco landowners Bill Blanchard and Robert Thomas have hired some expensive help to fight the landfill. They have been spending tens of thousands of dollars and taking advantage of politically connected friends to sway the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Pasco County Commission.

Blanchard and Thomas are interested in Pasco's water and development and they are concerned that a nearby landfill could harm their financial interest. However, there are sound reasons to believe the landfill might be the best choice for Pasco, if done right.

Under current Florida water law, Thomas owns Crystal Springs. He stopped public access to the springs and contracted with Nestle Waters, owners of the brand Zephyrhills, to pump and sell the water. Thousands of those little water bottles are filled with spring water by Nestle courtesy of Florida’s generous residents. Thomas grosses roughly $90,000 per DAY from the partnership.

Here's some of the hired help:

Ranch hand # 1 Former Governor of Florida, Bob Martinez

According to the Times, in 2008 Martinez was paid about $35,000 by Thomas’ Two River’s Ranch to open doors for the two ranchers. A meeting on December 4, 2008 between Blanchard, Thomas and top environmental regulators in Tallahassee was quickly scheduled by Martinez. (The meeting was in a building named after Martinez.) The purpose of the meeting was to postpone the decision on the landfill permit. Even though the decision had already been two years in the making, the ranchers succeeded in swaying the regulators to postpone the decision.

According to David DeCamp of the Times, “Martinez has confirmed he has set up meetings. . . He declined to say who he contacted about ‘basically trying to get the story out as to why [the bioreactor] shouldn’t be done.”

Ranch hand # 2 Pasco County Commissioner Chair, Ted Schrader

Two Rivers Ranch also contributed $500 to Schrader’s campaign in 2008. Schrader says that he has been friends with Robert Thomas for years. He was the baseball coach for Thomas’ son. As the chair of the Commission, Schrader holds a lot of political sway and clout. Coincidentally, he opposes the bioreactor.

Ranch hand # 3 President of the Environmental PR Group, Honey Rand

Honey Rand was hired by Blanchard to operate a PR campaign against the bioreactor. Rand has helped the citizen group Protectors of Florida’s Legacy. Her firm is well connected, one might say.

The group "Protectors of Florida’s Legacy" says they are a group of citizens concerned with the community in East Pasco. Unfortunately, Protectors seems connected to Rand, who is connected to Blanchard. You may draw your own conclusion.

You may ask yourself,”Why would so much money be spent, so much political capital utilized, so much effort be put into stopping a bioreactor landfill which would prevent an incinerator from spewing more toxins into the atmosphere and would save the citizens of Pasco up to $500 million?”

The proposed bioreactor was reviewed by Tampa Bay Water in 2007 and found to not be a threat to our water, but we think Nestle, Thomas, and Blanchard are very concerned. Thomas does not want any PR problems resulting from a landfill operating near the spring. While there are few, if any, documented leaks from this type of landfill, the safer move is to lobby against the bioreactor and for an expansion of the incinerator on the other side of the county, despite that fact that the incinerator would be allowed by EPA regulation to release toxins into the air and would create toxic ash that would need to go to another landfill somewhere.

Protectors of Florida’s Legacy contend that they are concerned with the environment but the incinerator creates incentive not to recycle because the county would make money from burning, and valuable raw materials are permanently lost. The best way to protect Pasco is by saving taxpayer dollars and avoiding incineration.