City of Milpitas officials, believing the nearby Newby Island Landfill and Resource Recovery Park is largely responsible for emitting odors that habitually bother residents, filed a petition in March requesting a formal hearing to fight the granting of permits to expand the height of the garbage dump on the San Jose-Milpitas border.
At that time, Milpitas' legal counsel sent San Jose's Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Division, Local Enforcement Agency, or LEA -- one of the main solid waste permitting agencies on this project -- a request for an administrative hearing.
On Aug. 28, hearing officer Suzanne K. Nusbaum, a lawyer acting as a neutral third party, concluded at the end of a 45-page record of hearings which took place over three days this summer that Milpitas' claims against the landfill or LEA were baseless.