Agency urges against landfill permit
The Akron-Beacon Journal
EAST SPARTA - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday recommended that a southern Stark County landfill with an underground fire be denied a required operating license.
But whether the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility will remain open or be shut down won't be known for months.
And the closing would, if ordered, affect the entire Pike Township landfill -- not just the 88-acre parcel where an underground fire has triggered foul-smelling odors.
In a four-page letter, EPA Director Chris Korleski said his agency has determined that the 258-acre landfill is violating Ohio's environmental laws.
The problems, Korleski said, include nuisance odors that plague neighbors, the failure of owner Republic Services to immediately extinguish or control a subsurface fire and landfill temperatures that are too high.
"I do not make this recommendation lightly, because if such a denial were to be finalized following proper due process proceedings, the entire facility, and not just the portion where the fire is occurring and related nuisance odors are being generated, would be shut down,'' he said.
He added: "While I recognize efforts undertaken by Countywide Landfill to reduce the odors, I still think there is more work to be done.''
The company, in a prepared statement, said it was "obviously disappointed'' by Korleski's recommendation.
The company feels that its license should be decided on its day-to-day operations and not on the odor and fire problems, spokesman Will Flower said.
Countywide has a better operating history and record of compliance than other Ohio landfills, he said.
The company will willingly comply with additional findings and orders proposed by the Ohio EPA, Flower said.
Such an agreement on additional findings and orders could keep the landfill open and negate the closing recommendation, both Korleski and Flower said.
In a telephone interview, Korleski said his agency was proposing action on two fronts: denying the operating permit and ordering the landfill to deal with the fire and odors.
The EPA is recommending that the Stark County Health Department not approve a 2007 permit for the landfill. The eight-member county health board is scheduled to meet this morning, but Health Director William Franks said no discussion and no action will be taken on the EPA recommendation.
Franks said the board won't make a decision on the permit for a number of months to give the company a chance to present its case.
It will take the county board at least two months to hold hearings and follow licensing procedures under state law, Franks said.
To get an annual license, a landfill must be in substantial compliance or on a legally binding schedule to attain compliance.
Orders and findings
Meanwhile, the EPA intends to prepare findings and orders that would require the landfill to take aggressive measures to eliminate the underground fire and odors.
Korleski said just denying the landfill a permit would not necessarily solve the fire and odor problems.
The EPA is considering ordering Republic Services to cease taking waste until "rigorous demonstrations regarding the safety and stability of the facility have been made,'' Korleski said in his letter.
Issues that must be dealt with, he said, include the integrity of the landfill's plastic liner and leachate and gas-collection systems, slope stability and subsidence, air quality and the odors.
The EPA wants Republic Services to promptly develop a plan looking at remedial options for extinguishing the fire and providing long-term maintenance and monitoring of the problem areas.
The company would then be required to quickly implement the remedy selected by the EPA, Korleski said.
The company also would be required to post increased financial assurance and to pay an unspecified civil penalty, he said.
The Ohio EPA would be willing to get input on the findings and orders from the Stark County Health Department, he said.
Some are troubled
If the company agrees to the new orders, the EPA will be satisfied that the company is "on a schedule to achieve compliance,'' Korleski said.
That possibility troubles Tuscarawas County Commissioners Chris Abbuhl and Kerry Metzger.
"It doesn't make sense... and is morally wrong,'' said Metzger, who also is chairman of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Solid Waste Management District. "It just boggles my mind... and is very frustrating.''
On Jan. 24, the Beacon Journal reported on a possible growing fire at Countywide. The story was based on interviews with a pilot who flew over the landfill twice with infrared equipment and with two experts on landfill fires.
That led the Ohio EPA to hire Todd Thalhamer, a California-based expert on landfill fires who investigated the Countywide situation. He issued his findings on Feb. 16, saying that the landfill has a chemical reaction and a smoldering fire in the garbage. He called it a "very complex'' problem.
The company had maintained that there was no fire at Countywide, that heat was being generated by a chemical reaction from aluminum wastes mixing with landfill liquids.
Thalhamer said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he was satisfied with the Ohio EPA's planned actions, which should deal with Countywide's problems.
EPA spokesman Mike Settles said some of Thalhamer's recommendations have already been adopted while other suggestions he made could become part of the agency's findings and orders.
Countywide is one of Ohio's biggest landfills and handles about 6,000 tons of garbage a day from northern Ohio. It takes in about half of Summit County's trash.
Neighbors happy
Neighbors living near the landfill were thrilled by news of the EPA recommendation.
"It is a good day for us,'' said Dick Harvey, who lives outside Bolivar in northern Tuscarawas County and who heads Club 3000, a grass-roots group that has opposed Countywide since it opened in 1990.
Club 3000 officials were not surprised by the EPA's recommendation, Harvey said.
"We knew the truth would come out,'' he said. "But we're very grateful that (Korleski) had the courage to take the step he did.''
The news, however, did surprise some Ohio environmentalists.
"I'm really floored. That's really remarkable,'' said Jack Shaner, a spokesman for the Columbus-based Ohio Environmental Council. "Give the Ohio EPA credit for doing the right thing. Countywide is a systemic problem that demands a systemic solution.''
Tim Vandersall, the landfill's general manager, said Republic Services will work with the EPA to solve the problems.
"We are confident that upon further evaluation, the agency will find reassurance that we have acted responsibly in managing and addressing the issue,'' Vandersall said in a statement.
"The position of Republic Services and Countywide is that if the Ohio EPA recommends the closure (of) Countywide, the state will lose a major piece of environmental infrastructure by closing a landfill that has the best compliance record of any landfill in the area.... If the decision to close a landfill was based upon environmental compliance, other landfills in the state with considerably more notice of violations than Countywide would have already been closed.''
View related articles:
Ohio EPA recommends Stark County propose to deny
Countywide Landfill's annual operating license
Landfill fire expert Todd Thalhamer's report to the EPA
Possible fire at landfill probed
