Milpitas: Judge Finalizes Settlement over Class-Action Lawsuit

A class-action lawsuit that alleged noxious odors, dust and air pollution that emanate from the Newby Island Landfill and Resource Recovery Park on the Milpitas-San Jose border harm area residents was settled earlier this month.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Peter Kirwan on July 8 granted the final settlement agreement, which ended years of litigation involving the landfill operated by Republic Services of Santa Clara County at 1601 Dixon Landing Road in San Jose and residents living near the dump.

"The court finds that the settlement is fair and reasonable and that denial of the settlement would, in fact, be harmful to the class rather than beneficial," Kirwan wrote. —...While the proposed settlement does not provide for closure of the landfill site or prevent expansion of the landfill site, it does provide for significant remediation measures to be implemented that could have a substantial impact on the door leaving the disposal facility. If the court were to not approve this settlement, those remediation measures would not go into effect. In other words, the odor and nuisance issues would remain as they currently exist."