AFTER the Guam Environmental Protection Agency denied a permit application put forward for the Guatali Municipal Solid Waste Landfill project, proponent Guam Resource Recovery Partners (GRRP) yesterday confirmed they have filed a notice of intent to appeal.

“I can confirm that we have received GRRP’s appeal last Friday,” GEPA Administrator Eric Palacios said in an interview with the Variety. “So the appeal kickstarts the adjudication process and because of that, I am not allowed to comment a whole lot at this point,” he added.

Palacios emphasized, though, that GEPA respects GRRP’s right to have a hearing within 60 days of filing an appeal.

“I'm communicating with our legal counsel and she and I will be reviewing the appeal packet and just move forward from there,” Palacios said.

Within the next few days, GEPA will be scheduling a hearing with their agency board of directors. 

At this point, however, Palacios said the schedule is still preliminary because the agency and its legal counsel still have to go through the appeal packet.

According to an earlier statement from GEPA, after careful review of the permit application, it was denied after GRRP failed to meet requirements set by Guam law and Guam Solid Waste Rules and Regulations. Specifically, the agency said the application failed to meet standards for financial assurance, post-closure care and management of leachate.

Appeal

In the notice of intent to appeal submitted to GEPA, GRRP stated: “The Aug. 9, 2012 decision contains numerous factual and legal errors that this (GEPA) board must correct, and its remaining determinations are without support.”

“What we’re requesting is for the board to basically review this and reverse this decision," stated GRRP spokesman Dave Sablan, "because under the law, the administrator’s only authority after the public comment period – provided that there is nothing that comes out from the public comment period that is of any significance – is adjust the operating plan."

He further stated that under the law, once the public comment period is done, Palacios’ only responsibility is to issue the permit.

“And he didn’t do that. Instead he rejected the application and submitted a letter of denial to us,” he said of Palacios.  “The issue that he cited should have been discussed with GRRP during the review process when we submitted our application and all the supporting documents over the course of the past few years.”

Sablan said that in October of last year, they received a letter from Guam EPA that they were in compliance with all the requirements of the law and that the environmental, health and welfare of the people were protected.

GRRP undertook the next step, which is to gather public comments. The comment period started on Oct. 5, 2011 and was extended in response to a request for an extension submitted to GEPA.

“After that, we reviewed all the comments," Sablan said. "Guam EPA answered all the concerns of the people and wrote them individually and we reviewed them as well and we did not see anything in there that would change the plan that we have submitted to Guam EPA to operate the land in Guatali."

“To deny it, [Palacios] is basically going against his responsibility under the law as prescribed by the law,” he added.

Prior to the denial of their permit application, GRRP has been trying for years to proceed with a contract to build the landfill in Santa Rita. The group’s efforts were held up by several court appearances, including a ruling in 2011 requiring further review of a draft operations permit issued to the company.

(With a report from Zita Y. Taitano)