Court orders company to stop dumping waste in Johnson County
Cleburne has scored a victory in its legal battle against Harrington Environmental Services after a judge ruled the company was in contempt of court and ordered it to stop dumping septic tank waste on its property.
In his March 1 ruling, visiting judge Jerry Ray found that Harrington Environmental Services violated a previous court order to stop dumping when it was raining or when the soil was saturated. The company “had willful intent” to dump waste on seven occasions, Ray wrote.
The order is in effect until the trial, scheduled for December in Johnson County district court.
Ray also ordered Harrington to pay $100 fines for each of the seven violations.
Mayor Scott Cain said the judge’s ruling shows that “justice has been served.”
“Harrington has had a flagrant disregard for its neighbors and Cleburne’s right to clean water,” Cain said.
Stephen Dickman, an Austin attorney representing the company said, Harrington Environmental Services was not in violation and that the nearby landowners were mistaken.
“We regret that the judge made those findings,” he said. “We think we put in a good case that the company was not applying septage to a saturated field.”
The fight against Harrington Environmental Services began when the company received a permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to apply liquid waste from septic tanks on its property to enrich the soil.
Cleburne also sued the the commission, alleging that the state agency erred when issuing the permit to Harrington.
Cleburne argued that the site is upstream from Lake Pat Cleburne, a flood control reservoir and popular recreation spot that supplies drinking water for more than 30,000 people. The land is near the Wallace tributary of the Nolan River, which flows in to the lake.
But Dickman said the land belonging to Harrington Environmental Services is flat and there is no runoff.