A ruling by Michael D. Keele, a judge in Marion Superior Court Environmental Division, has returned a landfill permit to J.M. Corp.

This week, Keele agreed that environmental law Judge Mary Davidsen acted appropriately when she allowed J.M. Corp. to continue the permit process for the proposed Mallard Lake Landfill. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) claimed that Davidsen acted “arbitrarily and capriciously.”

“My attorney told me (Keele) ruled against the state. That means we have our permit back,” said Ralph Reed, founder of J.M. Corp. “He basically ruled that the other administrative judge’s decision was right.”

Counsel for J.M. Corp. and IDEM testified before Keele on Oct. 17 on the matter. Parties were given 30 days to submit findings of fact and Keele was expected to rule 30 days later.

“I have not been asked to decide whether a landfill is appropriate, only to determine whether the environmental law judge erred in the permit process,” Keele said during the hearing. “I have all the information I need to make a decision. The ball, you might say, is in my court.”

In 1978, J.M. Corp announced plans to create a landfill in northern Madison County. A year later, the company purchased a 154-acre farm at the corner of County Road 300 East and County Road 300 North in Richland Township.

But the project has been mired in controversy and legal opposition for parts of four decades. J.M. Corp. has encountered opposition form an activist group formed in 1979 called the Killbuck Concerned Citizens Association.

See the complete story in Thursday’s The Herald Bulletin.