Judge Orders Landfill To Close

Saturday, September 1st 2007, 4:50 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A Tulsa County judge denies a request to keep a north Tulsa landfill in operation. According to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, District Judge Daniel Owens ruled that a permanent injunction calling for the closure of North Tulsa Sanitary Landfill will remain in full effect.

In July, Owens ordered the landfill to cease all operations and close. Attorneys for the landfill asked Owens for a modification of the July order and to allow the facility to stay open.

But Owens denied the request.

DEQ officials say the landfill hadn't been in compliance for several years.

The agency and the landfill entered a legally binding agreement that required the facility to submit an approvable plan to DEQ for construction of a new cell for waste disposal by August 28th, 2006.

That deadline was missed. Under the consent order, the penalty for failure to meet the deadline was to immediately shut down the landfill.