SHEPHERD — As the Montana Department of Environmental Quality's extended public commenting period for a proposed auto shredder residue landfill is coming to a close in just nine days, over 100 community members attended a public forum Tuesday night to voice their concerns.
“The design that they do have and the proposal that they do have is very incomplete and inconsistent,” said Shepherd resident Anellise Deters.
Deters first heard about the landfill project five days into the initial 10-day public comment period, and she immediately started working to stop the Pacific Steel and Recycling project.
“In less than 48 hours I created a flyer, I was going door to door telling everyone about it. Getting everyone to email DEQ,” Deters said.
Deters lives just a few miles away from where the landfill would be built off Highway 87 and Shepherd Acton Road. She has concerns about what it would do to the traffic on the road and said five people have already died in car wrecks at the intersection. She also worries about how the landfill would impact the water and air quality.
“They haven’t talked about any of the contaminants at all, which is very concerning. They’re putting in a liner, so obviously they know there’s a potential to contaminate the groundwater and soil, but what are they contaminating it with? They haven’t said. Nowhere in the proposal,” she said.
DEQ said it has completed the necessary environmental assessment on the landfill but will take the public's concern into consideration before giving Pacific Steel and Recycling approval.
“We have heard concern and quite a bit of opposition, which is exactly why we are here,” DEQ Waste Management Administrator Amy Steinmetz said. “Based on the information that we have now, we would be able to permit the landfill. However, there’s a reason why we go through this process.”
DEQ will take public comment until Nov. 30 online or by mail.
“Through the law and through science, if we permit this landfill it will be protective of human health and the environment,” Steinmetz said.
Still, Deters said it shouldn't be built and said everyone she's spoken with agrees.
“I haven’t met a single person that’s for it,” Deters said.
