LEGAL BATTLE OVER WALLER COUNTY LANDFILL COMES TO AN END

  

After two years of legal battles, the lawsuit over a proposed Waller County landfill came to a close on Friday, with a deal that ensures the civil case against the county will not be appealed, while retaining the right for the landfill to still be built.

The Waller County Commissioners voted 3-2 on Friday to approve the settlement that voided the county’s 2013 ordinance and hosting agreement authorizing a waste site near Hempstead.

The deal notes that the county will pay a total of $570,000 in attorney’s fees to the plaintiffs, the City of Hempstead and Citizens Against the Landfill, the group opposing the building of the landfill.

The fate of the project is still undetermined because the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, not Waller County, has the final say on the fate of the landfill, and the landfill company’s application will again be reviewed in a contested case hearing in August.

Retired state District Judge Terry Flenniken signed the final judgment after the vote by the commissioner’s court. This brought an end to the civil case after a jury found that the county commissioners violated transparency laws when they agreed to allow the 250 acre landfill to be built in Hempstead.