Sussex officials file legal action against Blessing

In answer to a complaint filed against them, Sussex County is seeking a cease-and-desist order to halt composting at Blessing Greenhouses and Compost. County officials have filed a petition for injunctive relief in Delaware Chancery Court against owner Bruce Blessing, who has filed a Freedom of Information Act complaint against the county.

The county is asking the court to order Blessing to cease and desist from accepting any new yard waste, compost material, biosolids, wood chips, concrete, stone or any other similar material to be stored, stockpiled, composted, ground up, mixed or processed on the property, located along Draper Road near Milford.

Frank and Marilyn Draper, trustees, and Red Fox Farms, owners of sections of the property where the facility is located, are also named. In addition, the county is asking the court to order Blessing to immediately start complete cleanup and removal of all existing material "constituting a public nuisance" within three months of the order.

The county is also seeking any financial compensation related to the injunction to cover legal costs and costs of enforcement or remediation efforts that may be required, which could include a lien on the property.

It's the latest action in an ongoing legal battle between Blessing and county officials, who voided a conditional use for his business during a Feb. 22 planning and zoning commission meeting. Blessing then filed a complaint in Chancery Court against the planning and zoning commission for violating the Freedom of Information Act when it terminated the conditional-use permit.

According to his complaint, Blessing alleges proposed amendments to the conditional use were not advertised in a public notice for the meeting. "Had plaintiff known that the commission was considering termination or might take action to terminate, plaintiff would have presented evidence and testimony demonstrating why such action would not be appropriate and why plaintiff's actions to date were not inconsistent with the conditional-use permit," according to the complaint.

In August 2017, with a long list of conditions, Sussex County Council voted unanimously to approve a conditional-use application to allow Blessing Greenhouses and Compost to continue its operation.

Blessing operates a composting, flower-growing and yard-waste recycling business along Draper Road in a rural area near Milford. Conditions included cleanup of a 100,000-ton, pre-compost pile that had been accumulating on the property for years. He was given a four-month deadline starting in September to remove the pile or post a $1 million bond while continuing to remove material from the property.

Neither of those actions occurred, and the county planning and zoning commission voted 4-0 ordering Blessing to shut down his operation.
Blessing had requested another hearing seeking to amend some of the conditions including the deadline for the pile removal and the posting of the bond, which he said was impossible to obtain.

In addition, he said, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control remediation order for compost removal does not include any timelines. The hearing was not granted. Pending final rulings of legal action, he is still open for business. However, the facility no longer accepts yard waste, which was one of the conditions placed on the operation by council.

The original pile is what has attracted the ire of nearby residents who say it smells and attracts flies that plague their homes. So far, about 50 percent of the pile has been removed, Blessing said.

Blessing says he wants his day in court. He said violations alleged by the county do not exist and he is complying with a DNREC Secretary's Order. "The county will have to produce those violations during discovery at trial," he said.

In addition, he said, DNREC inspectors have not found any environmental violations relating to his operation. "The county is going out of their way to distort the facts and has not reached out to talk," he said. "I've done everything right."

Blessing said the county has gone from requiring a section of the compost pile be removed to the entire site being cleared. "It's a conspiracy to put me out of business because of a couple of neighbors. Every allegation in the county's complaint can be disproven," he said.

Blessing said he has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars since the county revoked his conditional use. "Aren't I entitled to some compensation?" he asked. "If I'm wrong, I'll accept the consequences, but if the county is wrong they need to accept the consequences also."

Sussex officials do not comment on pending legal action matters.