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A four-year controversy stemming from the disposal of construction waste has found a court resolution at the same time another could be wafting on the winds swirling around a pile of the debris south of Bondurant.

Polk County District Court Judge Donna Paulsen ruled last week that Phoenix C & D Recycling of Des Moines violated a contract and pilot agreement with the Metro Waste Authority to dispose of ground-up construction debris at its Metro Park East landfill.

The contract, initially written in 2004 to establish standards for the disposal and use of the debris, also called fines, as cover for other solid waste, was poorly written but still enforceable, Paulsen said in a ruling Jan. 19, three years to the day after Phoenix filed its lawsuit.

Metro Waste entered the contract because it was under orders from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce waste streams going into the landfill by 25 percent or face up to $1 million in penalties and fines.

Under the terms of two separate agreements, Metro Waste would accept the debris for free provided it did not produce foul odors and met other testing criteria.

In the fall of 2005, Metro Waste terminated the pilot, which it had established with Phoenix and a company called Taylor of Iowa, another construction debris contractor organized by former officials of Regency companies and a New York-based recycler.

Prior to the contract being canceled, Metro Waste had been at odds with Phoenix and Taylor regarding the contents of the fines being delivered to the landfill.

Taylor, whose name was changed to Environmental Reclamation & Recycling prior to shutting down earlier this year, stockpiled 65,000 cubic yards of the material on a concrete pad at the site of a former truck stop along Interstate 80 near Bondurant.

Metro Waste Executive Director Tom Hadden won approval from the agency’s governing board to refuse the material after he noticed the smell of sulfur and ordered additional testing.

In 2007, an arbitration panel ruled that Phoenix failed to meet any testing requirements during the time it delivered the fines to the Metro Waste landfill.

In addition, another judge denied Phoenix’s request to rewrite its contract with Metro Waste.

Paulsen noted that she was not convinced that the debris delivered by Phoenix generated the odors.

The judge ordered Phoenix to repay Metro Waste $154,892 in disposal fees that were deferred during the experiment.

Phoenix CEO Tony Colosimo said he is “considering my options” on whether to appeal the ruling.

Meanwhile, the 65,000-cubic-yard pile of debris that collected near Bondurant was recently determined to contain an unknown quantity of asbestos.

Hadden said the asbestos was found during testing to determine whether the debris could be used as an alternative energy source.

Material containing asbestos can be delivered to the landfill, providing it is isolated in bags or other material that will keep it from becoming airborne, and stored with other special wastes.

“The big question is who’s going to pay, who is ultimately responsible; that’s kind of the million-dollar question,” Hadden said.

Metro Waste will no longer accept the fines for use as cover, although it can receive the debris for disposal with other waste.