The city of Melbourne, Fla., will move ahead with code enforcement of a recycling company facing allegations of altering wetlands without its consent.
According to Paul Gougelman, an attorney for the city of Melbourne, the company, Florida Recyclers of Brevard, has been operating its recycling facility without the proper permits from the city. The company sits on a 40-acre site; the site has 22 acres reserved with C&D recycling, with the other 18 acres not being used and containing some wetland preserves.
The company has raised some concerns as it operated outside the realm of its city permit. The company had cut down many of the trees on the additional land, and had filled in the wetlands without permission from the city.
Due to these problems the company went before the city’s code enforcement board yesterday, May 29, to address some of the problems the city has found fault with. While the company failed to obtain a city permit, it did receive a permit from the state of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection to operate.
At the meeting, the city found that the company was in violation on three of five possible cases. The three are the following:
· Cutting down trees without a permit. The company clearcut trees and filled in the wetlands without the approval from the city, according to Gougelman
· Failing to obtain a soil and sentiment permit. Companies are required to have a permit to dig up wetlands.
· Expanding the facility’s operation, resulting in changing its conditional permit without coming to the city for the required permit.
According to local press reports, James Fallace, the attorney representing the company, said the company has submitted a proposed amendment to its city permit.
"We've taken care of many of the issues," he said.
Gougelman said that the city has yet to impose any fine on the company, although the penalties could be stiff. The reason for holding back with any financial penalty is that the company is in the process of submitting steps to the city that the company expects will remedy the situation.
“We have been in discussions with them, and the discussions have been very constructive,” Gougelman added.
While the city is waiting on imposing any fines, Gougelman does say that if nothing happens in the next several months the company will be back before the board.