Amerigrow Recycling on Monday won permission to expand its recycling operation west of Delray Beach – even though the company has failed to comply with county and Solid Waste Authority regulations in the past.
The county will allow Amerigrow to store up to 70,000 cubic yards of vegetative debris at its 30-acre site on Atlantic Avenue just west of U.S. 441. That would make it one of the county’s two largest recycling firms.
Three years ago, Amerigrow was a nursery that also mulched yard waste. The company’s Solid Waste Authority permit allowed it to keep up to 6,000 cubic yards of material.
But the bottom fell out of the nursery market. By 1991, making mulch became Amerigrow’s main business, and the fees charged to dumpers became the company’s main income.
Last year, SWA officials cited Amerigrow for exceeding its permit. They found at least 29,000 yards of vegetation piled there.
The issue came before county commissioners in October. Several neighbors protested the company was running a landfill. They said it shouldn’t be given permission to do what it already was doing illegally.
“I think he should go clean up his operation,” said Frank Poma, president of Palm Beach Downs, whose ranch home overlooks the site. “He’ll just pile, and pile, and pile, and then he’ll walk away.”
But Jerry Wochna, co-owner of Amerigrow, said he had cooperated with the county and the SWA since learning of its violations. He said the company should not be put out of business because the service it offers is needed in the Agricultural Reserve Area.
Commissioners compromised, delaying a vote for two months and ordering Amerigrow to reduce its stockpile to 15,000 cubic yards in that time.
On Monday, SWA inspectors said the company had reached that goal, and then some.
“The volume reduction was unbelievable,” said Ken Berg, the authority’s special-programs coordinator.
Gerald Martin, Poma’s attorney, said he still opposed Amerigrow’s rezoning request, saying the county should measure the piles to ensure compliance.
But the commissioners said they thought Wochna had complied. They will require him to submit to twice-yearly inspections and to give the SWA frequent reports on the volumes Amerigrow is handling.
And, at the insistence of Commissioner Karen Marcus, county zoning inspectors will have the authority to shut down Amerigrow immediately if it fails an inspection.
“I’m uneasy about this because we have such a bad track record [with commercial recyclers),” she said.
Wochna said his company won’t stray from the rules again.
“I think this should be the end of it,” he said. “We’re going to do everything we’re asked.”
