County sued over landfill access road

The Unified Disposal Board is facing another obstacle over the new landfill being constructed just east of Havre — a lawsuit saying Hill County does not have the right to build the road it plans to connect the landfill to U.S. Highway 2.

American Wind and Wheat Farms LLC filed a complaint in state District Court in Havre Monday alleging that the county "seeks to exploit and unlawfully take (the company's) land for the purpose of constructing a roadway along what it claims is an existing roadway." The lawsuit says the company bought the land from its previous owner, Kenneth Flynn, in August

2008.

The Montana Secretary of State website lists the business as being registered in Fort Benton with George Power as its principal member.

No contact information for Power could be found by this morning.

Fort Benton attorney Jerry Brooke, listed as an agent for the company, was in conference this morning and could not be reached for contact.

A small business directory on the Internet lists American Wind & Wheat Farms LLC with George Power as a contact, with no telephone listed, with a Sylmar, Calif., address.

The county is using a road created in 1914 to connect the landfill to the highway, but American Wind and Wheat Farms says in its complaint that the road was not legally created and the county "has abandoned the alleged easement."

Hill County Attorney Gina Dahl said this morning that the county disputes the allegations and has evidence that a road has existed on the contested route.

"There has always been a road there," she said.

Great Falls attorney Richard Gallagher, who is representing American Wind and Wheat Farms, said the lawsuit speaks for itself. His clients have a disagreement with the county, he said.

"I really can't say anything further at this point," Gallagher added.

The landfill is being constructed to replace the landfill now in operation about 10 miles east of Havre, which serves residents of Hill, Blaine and northern Chouteau counties.

It also can be accessed from the south, using Clear Creek Road.

U . S . E n v i r o nme n t a l Protection Agency regulations put in place 10 or 15 years after the landfill was created in the 1980s now require that any new pits dug to hold trash have a liner, at a cost of about $2 million per pit.

The consultant who helped select the new site, which the s t a t e D e p a r t m e n t o f En v i r o nme n t a l Qu a l i t y approved to run without liners because of geological formations under the site, said not using liners will save about $35 million for the landfill's users over the life of the site.

After trying to reach agreements with landowners to build a road to the site from the north, connecting it to the highway, the county discovered the 1914 road petition granting easements that allowed the road.

The new lawsuit says that isn't so.

The petition to create the roadway in 1914 did not follow the requirements of the law in describing the roadway in detail and did not specify that the roadway would travel along the route on the plaintiff's land the county now wants to use, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also contends the county has allowed the roadway to fall into disrepair, and so has abandoned any easement claimed. The previous owner of the land, Kenneth Flynn, also built a fence across the roadway which American Wind and Wheat Farms has maintained, reclaiming any alleged easement, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit contends that the value of the company's land, now set at $1,000 an acre, would likely decrease dramatically if the road is constructed. Aside from the monetary loss, it continues, the company and its "guests or lessees would have to live with the detrimental impact that a county road would have on its enviroment." The lawsuit asks the judge to declare that no valid easement or county road exists across the plaintiff's property and to award reasonable attorney's fees and costs of filing the lawsuit and for "such other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper."