Attorneys come to agreement on North Toledo landfill

Toledo firefighters work on fire at a Stickney Recycling debris pile in Toledo.

State attorneys came to a four-point agreement with the operators of Stickney Recycling late this afternoon after about six hours of negotiating.

The agreement calls for Hemisphere Ltd., Stickney West C & DD LLC, Stansley Mineral Resources, and Stickney Holdings LLC to cover the North Toledo dump - a construction and demolition debris landfill at 4425 Creekside Ave. - with 12 inches of soil, probe for carbon monoxide and any other evidence of lingering combustion, provide an updated survey to state health and environmental regulators about the site's capacity, and do more air monitoring for cancer-causing asbestos fibers.

The two sides are to convene via conference call within 48 hours to discuss the company's proposal for building a temporary storage area to hold incoming waste shipments until the next cell at the landfill is constructed and licensed to take waste. Until a decision on that proposal is made, the temporary restraining order that forbid new waste shipments from being accepted will stay in effect, Judge Linda Jennings of Lucas County Common Pleas Court said.

The companies that own and operated the facility believe the fire may have been an arson, a cause that was attributed to one of the site's previous fires, according to Michael Cyphert, a Cleveland attorney representing those businesses.

"Obviously, we're going to enhance security," he told reporters.

Toledo Fire Chief Luis Santiago has said the cause is unknown. A filing by the Ohio Attorney General's Office said the blaze may have begun as many as two weeks before flames shot into the sky on Friday, raising concerns about asbestos and other pollutants that were put into the air over the weekend.

Both sides agreed to pursue a settlement in lieu of an enforcement hearing that had been scheduled for today. Judge Jennings had been asked to make the temporary restraining order permanent, in part because of a series of outstanding violations cited by state attorneys. She agreed to let them work out a compromise.