EPA chief inspects 'unique circumstance' at landfill
The Canton Repository
BOLIVAR - Accompanied to the area by the new director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, a landfill fire expert from California said Friday he's never seen a situation like that of the Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility.
"You have a very unique circumstance here," said Todd Thalhamer, a waste management engineer for the California Environmental Protection Agency. If there is a fire burning inside the Pike Township landfill, "this is about as complicated as a landfill fire gets."
Thalhamer and new Ohio EPA director Chris Korleski, who was sworn in Thursday, appeared Friday morning at the board meeting of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District in Bolivar.
Thalhamer told board members he doesn't know of any other landfill that did what Countywide did from 1993 to 2001: Dump aluminum waste and then allow it to come in contact with recirculated leachate, the liquid that results when rainwater flows through a landfill.
"This is not a typical practice," he later told reporters, stressing he has not yet decided if Countywide has a fire and what the effects of such a fire would be.
"We have a landfill that appears to be significantly malfunctioning," said Korleski. "Right now, this is my number-one priority at Ohio EPA. ... the odor problem, this heating problem, this is atypical."
IS THERE FIRE?
Thalhamer, who took thermal video images of Countywide from a helicopter Wednesday, said under California's more stringent environmental laws but not Ohio law, the aluminum waste - impurities and scum formed during aluminum processing - would be considered hazardous.
California also does not allow landfills to mix such aluminum waste, which reacts with moisture, with leachate or municipal waste, said Thalhamer. He added that he has not had time to review the images and data and that it's not clear when he'll reach a determination.
EPA officials believe the aluminum and leachate has resulted in a reaction that's caused a nauseating odor, heat that can almost boil water and unexpected waste settling and decomposition.
After a pilot claimed last month that his aerial thermal images of the landfill in August and December showed a growing underground fire at Countywide, the Ohio EPA brought in Thalhamer to determine if that was the case.
Countywide's general manager Tim Vandersall said his company's tests show no indication of a fire. He believes the pilot's pictures show heat from gas wells redistributed by a new 30-acre plastic cap installed in the fall to contain the odor.
While temperatures at the middle of the landfill have exceeded 200 degrees - enough to damage the plastic liner that helps keep waste from leaking into the area's water - the heat is far from the liner at the bottom, Vandersall said. And if the liner is damaged, there's another 3-foot layer of clay to prevent leaks, he said.
Disagreeing with Korleski's use of the word, "malfunctioning," Vandersall said, "It's his second day on the job. Let him get the facts."
EARLY WARNING
Stark County Health Commissioner Bill Franks said his staff has found a Countywide memo from 1993, which instructed landfill personnel to avoid mixing the aluminum waste with other solid waste and to keep surface water away from it because it could cause the release of ammonia.
The EPA and Countywide said much of the aluminum waste came from a foundry operated in Uhrichsville by Barmet Aluminum. Barmet had buried the waste near its foundry, but the EPA had ordered the company to clean up the waste, which was dumped at Countywide during much of the 1990s.
Vandersall said while Countywide knew of the ammonia reaction, if it had known the aluminum waste would react with leachate, it never would have accepted the waste. He said between 1996 and early 2006, leachate was recirculated through the landfill because it helped the waste to stabilize much more quickly.
Korleski, who later toured the landfill with Thalhamer, said he expects to decide by around Feb. 21 whether to recommend that the Stark County Board of Health suspend Countywide's operating license.
"I understand the community has been suffering for quite some time," he said. "I plan to take ownership of this problem."
