Dump must douse fire
The Akron Beacon Journal
PIKE TWP - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced strict orders to end underground fire and odor problems at the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in southern Stark County.
Under the negotiated agreement, owner Republic Services of Ohio must develop and submit a plan on extinguishing the underground fires at the Pike Township landfill within 60 days.
The company agreed to pay more than $1 million in fines because of the fires and odors at the 258-acre landfill. The problems were triggered by liquid runoff coming in contact with buried aluminum wastes.
Of that fine, $250,000 will go into what is being called the Community Benefit Project Fund. The EPA will solicit suggestions from individuals and community groups to develop projects to aid affected communities in southern Stark and northern Tuscarawas counties.
Will Flower, a spokesman for Republic Services Inc., said the $250,000 was intended "to prove to the community that we're deeply sorry for the problems with the odors.''
At least some in the area took issue with the $250,000.
"It's insulting and a slap in the face,'' said Maryann Fearon, who lives outside Bolivar. "We don't want the money. We're concerned about our health, our welfare, our water, our community values.''
Club 3000, a grass-roots organization that has been fighting Countywide, has mixed feelings about the agreement, spokesman Tom O'Dell said.
"There's a lot in there that's good, and there's a lot that's scary,'' he said.
The key element of the 31 pages of findings and orders is the requirement that Countywide's underground fires be quickly extinguished, EPA Director Chris Korleski said in a telephone interview.
Options that must be investigated include using chemicals or foam to extinguish the fires, digging up the burning wastes and capping the site.
The EPA has hired two consultants to help it assess the company's plan. They are Vytenis Babrauskas, president of Fire Science and Technology Inc. in Issaquah, Wash., and Carl E. Heltzel, a former college professor and now editor of the American Chemical Society's ChemMatters magazine. Korleski will choose the remedy or remedies that the company must follow.
"It is my hope and expectation that the orders... will result in finally arriving at a solution to address the fire and related nuisance odors that have plagued area residents for so long,'' Korleski said.
The Beacon Journal reported on Jan. 24 that there probably was a troublesome and potentially dangerous fire smoldering underground at Countywide. The company and the Ohio EPA said they thought the landfill's heat and odor problem was being caused by a chemical reaction.
Todd Thalhamer, a California expert on landfill fires, was hired by the Ohio EPA and determined that Countywide was dealing with both an underground chemical reaction and smoldering trash.
"The new findings and orders give us specific direction for moving forward to continue our remediation,'' landfill general manger Tim Vandersall said.
The agreement negates the EPA's recommendation to the Stark County Health Department that Countywide not be given its 2007 operating permit because it was violating Ohio environmental rules, Korleski said.
The EPA dropped the recommendation because it now has a legally binding agreement with the company, he said.
The health department can consider the agreement as evidence, but the county Board of Health still must rule on whether Countywide should get the permit, he said.
The orders announced Wednesday are considered among the most comprehensive ever issued by the Ohio EPA to correct landfill problems.
The agreement spells out a 16-step compliance schedule and mandates additional sampling that must be conducted under EPA oversight to analyze the landfill problems.
Countywide intends to fully comply with every provision, said Flower, the spokesman for Republic Services.
He called the agreement "extremely comprehensive and very stringent... and it lays out everything that must be done to remediate the site.''
The EPA wants "to see what's going on inside the landfill... and the additional testing will go a long way in providing that assurance,'' he said.
Another provision requires Countywide to close the original 88-acre area where the problems occurred, and the company must forfeit at least 15,500,000 cubic yards of currently permitted dumping space.
To do that, the EPA intends to modify the landfill's 2003 expansion permit and prohibit dumping trash higher on that portion of the landfill.
The company will be permitted to place additional material on the 88 acres that are being closed after the fire is extinguished to bring the subsided area up to grade.
Under the agreement, the company can move up to 125,000 tons of trash into that area to stabilize it without paying any fees. Any additional trash will require a state-imposed $2-per-ton payment by the company into the $250,000 community fund. The company is prohibited from raising its fees to cover the added charge.
Flower said Countywide is willing to forgo piling trash higher on the 88 acres.
"That's was just not an option for us in the foreseeable future,'' he said.
The landfill has 25 years of capacity without piling trash higher, he said.
The problems are "not a financial issue, but an environmental issue that must be solved,'' Flower said.
The company has spent more than $4 million trying to deal with the odors, which began about a year ago. The remedies included installing 160 gas-extraction wells and six flares to burn off the landfill gases.
O'Dell, of Club 3000, said he was especially troubled that temperatures in the landfill's gas-extraction system can remain high.
"There are just so many doors open for Countywide in the final settlement... and there are so many ways out for the company,'' O'Dell said. "We're not sure what impact it's really going to have.''
Tuscarawas County Commissioner Kerry Metzger, a critic of Countywide, was unhappy that the state orders had been reached through negotiations.
"We just don't understand why the EPA would negotiate this type of thing,'' he said. "We just don't feel that negotiations is appropriate in a case like this. Why can't the EPA step in and order what's right and what's needed? When two sides negotiate behind closed doors, who knows what's being negotiated away?''
Korleski said the EPA favored negotiations to quickly get an agreement without a long and costly legal fight.
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