"No Soup for You!" in Hamilton County; Rumpke gives Columbus Everything possible - and more.

Commissioner Driehaus failed to pass any of the citizen initiatives in the Solid Waste Plan, but she did secure new donors to her campaignPhoto byICRC, Hamilton County retrieved 11/30/2023

A cabal of residents united against corporate powerhouse Rumpke Consolidated over the course of over a year sought to improve the management of waste within Hamilton County and thereby stop the opening of a legally closed landfill in Southwest Hamilton County. They called themselves, the Solid Waste Caucus. Per an email dated Aug 9, 2022, these residents asked for:

1) Rules to regulate garbage haulers and landfill openings, expansions, and modifications.

2) Universal and improved recycling to reduce landfill waste.

3) Universal trash collection (to limit illegal dumping).

4) Increased “tipping” fees to discourage other counties/states from utilizing our limited landfill space by dumping their garbage on Hamilton County while the law requires each county to dispose of their own trash.

5) A Siting Criteria to protect residents, businesses, and neighborhoods from the health hazards creating environmental justice issues and community blight.

6) Landfill Designation to stymy the un-ending increase in landfill structures.

They nearly won, but for -

Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus took the helm of the county’s Solid Waste Policy Committee the year prior. As chair of the county’s oversight board charged with regulating landfills within the county, increasing our recycling rate, and protecting our environment. An important duty was for Driehaus to draft the County Solid Waste Plan – a 5-year event for the committee.

Driehaus had the opportunity to re-imagine the future of Hamilton County waste management via the county plan. She accomplished little of what community stewards like the Sierra Club, Rivers Unlimited, Oxbow, Cardinal Land Conservancy, Ditch the Dump, and Greater Community Groups asked for.

Other than subtle differences, the biggest change was in Driehaus’ campaign donor list. She added Rumpke and Rumpke’s legal counsel among those of her biggest donors.

Driehaus gutted the requests of the committee and her constituents to meager measures, benefiting Rumpke:

1) Rumpke was not subjected to a “designated” landfill status, which gave the county commissioners authority to restrict other counties and states from dumping their waste on Hamilton County which would significantly reduce Rumpke’s revenues.

2) “Tipping” fees were limited to a $1 increase instead of the maximum permissible fee of $4 per ton.

3) The meager Siting Criteria adopted was put under the purview of 1 single employee who answered to Driehaus and she stripped the committee of all powers.

4) The county plan did not include universal recycling or waste collection.

In early 2021, the Greater Community Groups, Inc., a nonprofit organization that specializes in systemic government compliance, implored the county Solid Waste Policy Committee to fulfill their duty to county residents and adopt rules to regulate the siting, operation, and use of landfills in the county as most counties had done in the late 1980’s. It took almost a year for them to convince the committee and community partners that this provision of law was a right - and duty - of the county committee and the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners despite the county administrator, Jeff Alutto, serving as the previous solid waste manager.

However, Franklin County, with the City of Columbus, jointly SWACO, have established lofty goals that will be met by Rumpke’s generous investment of $100 million into a recycling center and thereby generate substantial revenues from recyclable products. These are the same processes that Rumpke lobbied Driehaus to block, directly and indirectly via Tony DiPuccio, an illegally seated committee member who has been a paid consultant for Rumpke for over a decade. (Driehaus knew DiPuccio was a consultant for Rumpke and thereby had an irreconcilable conflict of interest, but she insisted he remain on the committee.)

The Franklin County solid waste committee requires:

1) Designation of their landfill.

2) $6 “tipping” fees and generation fees.

3) 85% recycling rate

4) No outside jurisdictions are permitted to dump at the landfill

5) All landfills, transfer stations, etc. are subject to Siting Criteria

6) Rules adopted.

While Rumpke filed a lawsuit claiming that the county had exceeded its authority to implement rules to regulate landfills, Rumpke was negotiating another revenue stream with Columbus utilizing the best technology available to reduce reliance on landfills and to protect their neighborhoods. Driehaus’ revision of county rules and subsequently blocking her constituents in the county plan, left Hamilton County operating in the 20^th century versus the technical advancements of the 21^st century utilized in Columbus, by Rumpke, the very company that sued the county and donated thousands to Driehaus’ and her co-hort, Ohio Supreme Court Justice, Joe Deters’ campaigns.

According to the director of Greater Community Groups, Inc., the advocate who brought forward the lack of progress in Hamilton County, when it comes to Denise Driehaus, it's more like: “No soup for you!”

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