Saturday, December 10, 2005

 

Landfill faces time limit to answer OEPA concerns

By Deanne Johnson
Morning Journal Staff Writer
December 9, 2005
Lisbon, Ohio

NEGLEY, Ohio - Penn-Ohio Recycling's construction demolition debris landfill above Negley may need to make some changes to stay in compliance with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency after an inspection found seven concerns.

Following up on complaints from the Middleton Township trustees and three local residents, the OEPA inspected the site Sept. 28 and then filed the letter stating the concerns on Nov. 21 with Guy Fragle of Total Waste Logistics Inc. of Sharpsville, Pa., the company which oversees the Negley site.

The letter gives Fragle until Dec. 15 to respond to the concerns of the inspection.

The concerns include findings that the site's storm water pollution prevention plan filed in July 2000 when the landfill was applying for approval was not being followed now. There has been no updated plan available, according to the OEPA, and only one of the sediment ponds on the plan actually has been constructed.

Because of failure to comply with the plan, the OEPA letter continues, there are now seven storm water concerns.

- The road ditches along the entrance drive and haul roads are not stable and erode with each rainfall. The letter suggests several steps to correct the problems, including cleaning out sediment traps.

- The leachate collection system implemented to control storm water coming into contact with waste at the rail car unloading area does not appear to capture all such storm water. While there is a system in place, the letter continues that it is caked with mud from truck tires. There is also a problem, according to the letter, catching waste dropped from railroad cars on the south side of the tracks - which is toward Negley.

- Another concern was with runoff flowing east onto a wetland-like area and into the yard of a neighbor.

- The letter further questions the lack of sediment or erosion controls in place from the soil in the "dump area." Soil, which was moved to be used later as cap material, reportedly has been placed on and over a hillside, creating a steep, bare slope.

- Another concern was with the face of waste cell No. 1, which reportedly has been bare and idle for about one year. According to requirements, it should have been stabilized within seven days of the last disturbance if it was to remain idle for 45 days or more.

- The letter states that there is exposed waste on areas that have been capped. Such exposed waste can cause storm water running off the area to become wastewater.

- Finally, the letter states that on Oct. 26, the engineer saw from another property that it appears fill material has been placed in an unnamed tributary to Leslie Run and that material has been washing down into Leslie Run.

The letter concludes that while it may be difficult to address some of the issues during the winter, it is necessary to complete stabilization in the spring of 2006.

Middleton Township trustees discussed the letter Monday and also talked about ways to make sure they are receiving the full amount of tipping money that they are due.

Judging by the amount the township recently received, Trustee Brad Bosley said he estimates about 12 railroad cars of demolition debris per day are being brought to the site, which would total 1,500 cars per year.
Related news and info

Friday, December 09, 2005

 

Appeals court rules in favor of landfill critics

Copley Ohio Newspapers
December 1, 2005

CANTON – The 170-acre expansion under way at the Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility in Pike Township may again be in legal jeopardy, due to recent appeals court rulings.

The Ohio 5th District Court of Appeals directed Stark County Common Pleas Judge Lee Sinclair to vacate a September 2004 settlement agreement between the landfill’s owner, Republic Services of Ohio, and Pike Township that allowed the expansion to move forward.

Appeals Judges John Boggins, W. Scott Gwin and John Wise said that Sinclair should have allowed Fred Charton, a Bolivar resident who owns a farm next to the landfill, to contest the agreement. They ordered Sinclair to consider Charton’s motion to be named a party in the case.

“I am glad it went the way it went. It looks better for the home team,” Charton said. “I get to intervene on everything that happened between Pike Township and Countywide.”

Republic spokesman Will Flower said the company wanted to review the rulings before commenting.

The panel also found that Stark County Common Pleas Judge John Haas prematurely dismissed Charton’s appeal of the Pike Township Board of Zoning Appeal’s ruling in August 2004 that allowed Countywide to expand by 25 acres. It returned the case to Haas, saying the judge should have ruled first on whether the board had to hold a hearing before making its decision.

It also ordered Stark County Common Pleas Judge Sara Lioi to reverse her decision denying Charton’s motion seeking to be named a party in another case. That’s where Republic appealed the Board of Zoning Appeals’ denial in July 2004 of a permit that would allow the landfill to expand by 170 acres.

 But in the settlement, Pike Township officials agreed to set aside the denial if Republic agreed to fund an I-77 ramp off Gracemont St. SW that would allow garbage trucks on the way to Countywide to bypass local neighborhoods.

Charton said that deal was made behind closed doors in the Stark County prosecutor’s office.

“Pike Township also is now accountable for their actions,” he said.

The appeals court decisions open the way for the settlement to be thrown out. That could mean the Board of Zoning Appeals’ ruling denying the 170-acre expansion would apparently go back into effect.

Republic did win one victory. The three-judge panel said contrary to a ruling by Stark County Common Pleas Judge Charles Brown, an agreement did not require Republic to allow environmental group Club 3000 to inspect areas of the landfill beyond its original 88 acres.

But Robert G. Rubin, an attorney for Charton and Club 3000, said this may not matter.

“If it’s possible to prevail on the prevention of the expansion, then it’s not a great concern you would be prevented from inspecting.”

T-R Staff Correspondent Barb Limbacher contributed to this story.

 

New sites added to landfill lawsuit

December 9, 2005
By Amy McCullough Tribune Chronicle

WARREN, Ohio - The City of Warren and six East Coast waste transfer facilities officially were added into a class action lawsuit alleging that the companies are responsible for the release of hydrogen sulfide gases into the air, causing a continued health hazard to area residents. The lawsuit was filed in April 2004 by 13 residents from both Warren city and Warren Township against Warren Hills LLC, Warren Recycling Inc. and the spokesman for the companies, as well as three other facilities.

The suit seeks to have property repaired and cleaned up and specific damages for illnesses such as headaches, sinus problems, nausea, itchy eyes, asthma, nose bleeds, sore throats and respiratory problems.

It spells out a chronology of warnings and adverse reports the landfill has received in recent years, and cites the hydrogen sulfide or "rotten egg'' odor as originating from the landfill. It also points out what the plaintiffs call physical health hazards, access to the unrestricted landfill, potential for fire and explosion and health risks.

David R. Dubin of Macuga & Liddle, P.C., the Michigan-based firm representing the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit alleges that Rizzo Associates Inc., Regal Recycling Co. Inc., USA Recycling Facility Services, Inc., Waste Management of New York LLC, Champion City Recovery LLC and Mid-State Recovery LLC "knew or should have known'' that the disposal of gypsum board at the Warren Hills landfill would lead to the creation of hydrogen sulfide gases.

A statement released from the firm said the city "failed to repair and/or maintain the sewer system so that hydrogen sulfide would not accumulate within the sewer system and would not enter residents' homes.''

Debbie Roth, one of the plaintiffs in the suit and leader of a local citizens' group pushing to clean up the controversial landfill, said it is likely more entities will be added.

"Anyone who put debris in the facility, potentially could be liable,'' Roth said.

City Law Director Gregory Hicks said he has not been notified that the city was officially listed in the suit and could not comment on specifics of the case.

He did say he has tried to cooperate with the group "many times'' over the years.

"There has never been any contact or any discuss with the city. These lawyers are just trying to make money and get publicity,'' Hicks said.

The other defendants could not be reached Thursday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been on-site since April 2004 and most likely will continue working through spring, said Mark Durno, on-site coordinator for the U.S. EPA.

 

Countywide LF Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)

 

Landfill wants to quadruple size; trustees to challenge

December 9, 2005
By Kelli Young Canton Repository Staff Writer

An Osnaburg Township disposal company that sits just outside of East Canton’s downtown area wants to quadruple the size of its landfill.

Township trustees and village officials are mounting a challenge.

They met with Stark County Health Department officials Thursday after recently learning that Stark C&D Disposal — a construction and demolition debris landfill — submitted an application in September to expand its 20-acre landfill by 95 acres. They wanted to know how to stop the expansion.

But Health Commissioner William Franks said Ohio law gives his department little discretion.

“If whatever is being proposed meets the site criteria and regulations, ... we’re obligated to give the permit,” he said.

The department has until Dec. 25 to either approve, reject or ask the company to revise its plan.

John Eslich, president of Stark C&D, said the company at 7280 Lisbon St. SE still could operate even without the expansion.

“We’re not filled up,” Eslich said. “We’re looking to the future . . . With the laws continually changing, we felt the time was right to do it at this point.”

A proposed state law that would more strictly regulate the landfills is expected to be considered by legislators next week. Construction and demolition debris landfills accept materials such as bricks, wood, concrete, vinyl siding, steel, plaster, roofing, asphalt and drywall. They do not accept garbage.

Kirk Norris, director of environmental health, said he still is reviewing Eslich’s permit application, but does plan to send a letter soon asking for revisions.

In the letter, Norris told the trustees that the department can ask Stark C&D about whether the expansion conforms to township zoning laws, but state law doesn’t allow the department to reject a permit based solely on zoning.

“Zoning is not addressed in the law at all,” Norris said. “We can’t enforce your zoning ordinances ... . That’s something you have to do as a township.”

Trustee-elect Donna Middaugh said the property is zoned single-family residential, but the landfill is considered nonconforming.

She said a nonconforming business only can expand by 25 percent under zoning laws. Even that expansion, which would equal five acres at Stark C&D, must be approved by the Osnaburg Township Board of Zoning Appeals, she said.

She said the company hasn’t contacted the township.

“It kind of makes you think they thought this was going to slide through,” she said.

But Eslich, who was unaware of the trustees’ meeting, said there’s nothing underhanded with the application. He believes the landfill has the correct zoning.

“That was handled in the ’80s (when the landfill began),” he said. “We’ve used it as a landfill, and that is what we will continue to do.”

He said if trustees don’t agree, then he will discuss it with the township.

Reach Repository writer Kelli Young at (330) 580-8339.

 

MSW at Countywide LF cell #7

Bulldozers push tons of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) into the active cell #7 at Countywide LF in November 2005. Day after day, tons of new trash is imported into our community and compacted in a location that is quite possibly above an aquifer which residents of 13 different Ohio counties rely upon for drinking water. The USGS is reportedly undertaking a study of the region to determine the past, present and future effects on the area's groundwater.

 

Panel in House OKs Landfill Bill

Mahoning Valley lawmakers failed to get three amendments approved.

By Jeff Ortega
Youngstown Vindicator Correspondent
December 8, 2005

COLUMBUS — The Ohio House of Representatives is poised to consider a bill Tuesday that backers say would reform how construction, demolition and debris landfills are regulated.

The House Economic Development And Environment Committee overwhelmingly approved the measure Wednesday.

"This a huge difference in CD&D law in the state of Ohio," said state Rep. Thom Collier, a Mount Vernon Republican and chairman of the House's economic development committee.

"Currently, there are no siting criteria at all. We'll have siting criteria," Collier said.

"There are no lookbacks on owners and operators; we'll certainly have that. There are no operational regulations near to the degree that we'll have in the bill," Collier said.

What law says

Current state law says that proposed CD&D dumps cannot be in a 100-year flood plain, nor can they be sited within the boundaries of a sole-source aquifer.

The measure, sponsored by state Rep. John P. Hagan, an Alliance-area Republican, says that proposed CD&D dumps can't be sited at least 500 feet from a residence unless the owner agrees, or unless the proposed dump owns the residence.

Also, the measure says that proposed CD&D dumps must not be within 500 feet of a national park, state park or recreation area or 100 feet from a so-called perennial stream.

The bill also contains a grandfather clause covering applications that have already been submitted to the state before July 1, the date a six-moratorium on new CD&D dumps went into effect. The moratorium expires Dec. 31 [2005].

Under the measure, applicants who've "acquired an interest in property," applicants who have begun a hydrogeologic study and engineering study and whose applications would have been complete if the moratorium was not in effect would be subject to current regulations.

Tabled by lawmakers

Lawmakers tabled an amendment offered by state Rep. Randy Law, a Warren Republican, that would have stripped the grandfather clause from the bill.

They tabled another proposed Law amendment that would have allowed health boards to insist that CD&D dumps be 1,000 feet from a residence unless they deem that 500 feet would be safe.

Lawmakers also tabled an amendment offered by state Rep. Sandra Stabile Harwood, a Niles Democrat, that would have mandated that proposed CD&D dumps be set back from all rivers by 500 feet.

Under the bill, only rivers designated "scenic" or "wild" would have the 500-foot setbacks from proposed CD&D dumps.

The proposed grandfather clause and some of the setback provisions drew opposition from others as well.

Debbie Roth, president of Our Lives Count, a citizens group, told lawmakers that the proposed grandfather-clause was unacceptable.

"What is the rationale for figuring out we need specific siting criteria on CD&D landfills as protection for the environment ... and yet we can somehow justify allowing how many more of them to be grandfathered to the old siting criteria under the old laws?" Roth asked.

Roth also labeled the 500-foot setback of proposed CD&D dumps to residences as "inadequate." There are at least six applications for new CD&D dumps pending in Ohio.

Information provided by Assistant Ohio EPA Director Laura H. Powell said those include two applications in Trumbull County, two in Morrow County, one in Mahoning County and one in Crawford County.

Majority Republicans said the bill is expected to go before the full House on Tuesday. The Ohio Senate is considering similar legislation.

 

Investigation on Ohio landfills prompting law changes

NewsNet5 investigative reporter Duane Pohlman Testifies Before Senate Committee

UPDATED: 6:15 am EST
Dec. 7, 2005



COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A 5 On Your Side investigation that aired last month could soon prompt some changes in state law.

Chief Investigator Duane Pohlman looked into Ohio landfills receiving garbage from other states, and how the dumping is causing environmental and health concerns.

Lawmakers now say the series of reports may finally put a stop to what some call a building environmental disaster.

Chief investigator Duane Pohlman testified Tuesday before a Senate committee looking to tighten Ohio's rules and regulations.

Both the Senate and House versions of the bill are expected to pass sometime this month.

Environmentalists say it has been a significant achievement.

Video of Duane Pohlman Ohio Senate Committee Testimony

 

Ohio River brownfield sites

 

Pollution Prevention and Program Initiatives Staff (PPPIS) Meets Again With Community Group Club 3000

In response to Club 3000 requests, PPPIS met with the community group to discuss their concerns with the County Wide Landfill. The group is concerned that the liner system in cell 7 has been compromised due to inappropriate operational and construction practices. Specifically, the group claims (based on video evidence) that rocks the size of boulders were placed incorrectly on the plastic liner. PPPIS has brought the matter up with Ohio EPA. Ohio EPA has responded that all their inspections and data indicate that this is not the case. Club 3000 does not believe Ohio EPA or the local Health Department in this matter and also believe that the groundwater monitoring data is not true. PPPIS is working with the group and Ohio EPA to document both parties' information. PPPIS will review the cell 7 design and the groundwater monitoring system/data to determine their validity and compliance with federal requirements.

Contact: Ramon C. Mendoza, 312-886-4314

Thursday, December 08, 2005

 

Pike Township zoning meetings slated for December 15th 7pm and Dec. 19th 7:30pm



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SB 224 Landfill Moritorium (Sen. Kirk Schuring)

To establish a moratorium on the issuance of permits for new solid waste landfills and expansions of existing landfills and licenses for new construction and demolition debris facilities and expansion of existing facilities in counties that are included in the Regional Hydrologic Study of the Tuscarawas River Basin conducted by the United States Geological Survey and to authorize solid waste management districts to expend money derived from district solid waste disposal and generation fees to providing funding for geological and hydrogeological surveys. Sm. Sec. 3734.57 & En. Se. 3754.50. . . Full SB 224 text here.

NOTE: Versions of legislation provided online are NOT official. The official version of bills are available from the LSC Bill Room located at the north end of the Ground Floor of the Statehouse. Enrolled bills are the final version passed by the Ohio General Assembly and presented to the Governor for signature. The official version of acts signed by the Governor are available from the Secretary of State's Office in the Borden Building, 180 East Broad St., Columbus.

 

Tuscarawas River Basin map-diagram

 

Water study under way for Tuscarawas River Basin

Dover-New Philadelphia Times-Reporter
Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005

The U.S. Geological Survey has begun the first of a three-phase hydrogeologic study of water resources in the Tuscarawas River basin, the agency has announced.

The research was prompted by increases in population and dependence on ground water in the basin, which drains part of 13 counties in eastern Ohio and is an important source of drinking water for the 600,000 people living in the area, including New Philadelphia, Coshocton, Canton and Akron. Since 1970, ground water use has increased from 55 percent to more than 85 percent of the total amount of water utilized in the area.

The project was approved by the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District in October.

“Results from this basin-wide study will provide policymakers with the detailed hydrologic information needed to make decisions regarding future land and water uses in the basin,” said Jim Morris, director of the USGS Ohio Water Science Center.

The three phases of the study include compiling information from existing sources of data; establishing hydrologic data-collection networks, such as water-quality and water-level networks of monitoring and domestic wells and stream water-quality and discharge networks; interpreting the data collected and publishing the results in a final report.

The waste management district will provide major funding for first phase of the study, which has an estimated cost of $415,000. USGS is providing $40,000 of the funding.

View USGS Ohio Water Science Center press release
View original article

 

Birds at Florida landfill to be shot

Seagulls and other scavenger birds frequent Countywide LF. A flock can be seen here hovering over bulldozers at active cell #7 in this photo taken Nov. 10, 2005.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A Florida county has begun shooting vultures and seagulls at a landfill because of the apparent danger they pose to drivers at a nearby turnpike.

A sharpshooter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been given a permit to kill 100 black vultures, 200 turkey vultures and 600 sea gulls until March at the Palm Beach County landfill in West Palm Beach, the Palm Beach Post reported.

State troopers say one recent car crash on the Florida Turnpike was caused by a bird-car collision and that collision may have caused another crash.

Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Jorge Delahoz said he doesn't think the vultures are a threat to cars. County commissioners will review the sharp-shooting idea in January after complaints from citizens and wildlife groups.

Rosa Durando, conservation director of the Audubon Society of the Everglades, said the sharpshooter may accidentally shoot birds not included in the permit.

She also said killing some vultures won't deter others from circling the landfill as officials hope.

View original article

 

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005, at the Ohio Statehouse

Akron Beacon Journal
Associated Press

A House committee unanimously recommended passage of a bill that would require landfills for construction debris to sit farther away from houses and natural resources and have better monitoring of pollutants.

Members rejected attempts to keep the landfills farther from waterways and to remove a clause that would allow five applications pending across the state to go forward, two of which were filed this year.

Rep. Thom Collier, a Mount Vernon Republican and the committee chairman, said House leadership still will consider an amendment suggested by Sen. Timothy Grendell, a Geauga County Republican, that would allow the applications to go forward only if the property already has the correct zoning.

Landfills that accept wood, bricks and other building materials from construction and demolition sites now can be placed 50 feet from a home. The new law would require a 500 foot setback, plus a 6-foot-tall barrier. The landfill also must be set 100 feet from the owner's property line.

Construction landfills were originally thought to contain less harmful waste than municipal landfills, but the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has found toxins such as lead, which can come from fluorescent lights, and arsenic from treated wood in water that runs through the sites after rainstorms. Residents also have complained of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas, which smells like rotten eggs, forming when pulverized drywall gets wet.

The full House will take up the measure next week. A Senate committee began hearings on an identical bill so members can take up the House version and move it quickly if it passes. The Legislature adjourns until January after next Wednesday, and a moratorium on new construction landfills under the old rules expires Jan. 1 [2006].

 

Seeing green in brownfields

Blue Smoke, tainted water - Ohio River towns struggle to clean, revive dead factories

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Stories by Spencer Hunt
Photos by Mike Munden
Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2005

NEW BOSTON, Ohio — Just as every other worker did during the first year on the job, Joe Wells rotated through almost every task at a Scioto County steel mill.

A kid in a new pair of steel-toed boots, Wells was scared to death when he first stepped onto the open-hearth floor in 1973 and watched workers tap molten steel from the mill’s massive blast furnaces.

He helped at the nearby coke plant, baking coal into the fuel burned to make steel. In the rail yard, he toiled with an endless stream of train cars that brought in coal and ore and shipped out ton after ton of finished steel.

And like the others, he watched the factory and the steel industry change. In 1980, after years of fierce foreign and domestic competition, Cyclops Corp. closed the mill. Wells and a lucky few kept working at the coke plant.

Then, in the spring of 2002, the owners locked the gate and filed for bankruptcy. . . ......................................................... Read more

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

 

A lot of trash talk in Columbus

Ohio Senator Tom Niehaus
COLUMBUS – There have been a lot of people talking trash in Columbus recently, and that talk is likely to intensify over the next two weeks. The legislature is in the final days of discussion about two bills that contain new regulations for the location and operation of construction and demolition debris landfills.

House Bill 397 and Senate Bill 234 are companion bills, which means they are similar in content and the sponsors are working together to make changes to the state C&DD laws. Representative John Hagan introduced HB 397 in the House this spring and is the primary proponent for changes. I introduced SB 234 last week so members of my Environment and Natural Resources Committee could hear testimony on the progress of discussions.

The moratorium on the issuance of new permits for C&DD facilities expires December 31, [2005] so unless legislators pass a new law or extend the moratorium, operators will begin 2006 with the same regulations that currently exist. Residents of communities where landfills currently operate or are planned want tougher regulations.

C&DD landfills are not as controversial in our part of the state as they are in northeastern Ohio where, for instance, residents of Trumbull County are fighting the proposed location of another landfill in the city of Girard. Trainloads of trash from the east cost arrive seven days a week in Trumbull County on the Pennsylvania border. It is cheaper for communities in New York and New Jersey to ship their debris to Ohio for disposal than to dispose of it in their own state.

Unfortunately, we cannot charge more for out-of-state waste than for in-state waste due to the commerce clause in the U.S. Constitution. If that were legal, it would be one way to discourage the shipment of this debris.

Opponents of new or expanded landfills formed a group called Our Lives Count and have been among the most vocal proponents of tougher rules for the location and operation of landfills. Their county was home to one of the most notorious operations, Warren Recycling Landfill.

Complaints from residents about nausea, headaches, eye irritation and respiratory irritation as a result of exposure to hydrogen sulfide in the air have made the Warren site the poster child for bad operations. High concentrations of drywall that come into contact with water can create a public health hazard. After living through the Warren Recycling debacle, Trumbull County residents, and especially those from the city of Girard, are fighting the opening of yet another C&DD landfill.

One of the more contentious issues in the proposed legislation is a grandfather clause. This allows landfill operators who applied for permits prior to July 1, 2005, when the moratorium began, and who meet certain benchmarks, to operate under the old setback requirements and not the new ones proposed in both HB 397 and SB 234. They would still have to follow the new operational procedures.

I support the grandfather clause on the basis of fairness. If someone filed a legitimate application and followed the rules in effect prior to the moratorium but had not yet received a license to operate, I believe it would be unfair to force them to follow the new setback requirements.

How would you feel if you had purchased a lot zoned for single family homes, paid an architect to draw up plans in accordance with the current zoning and building codes, only to be told the day before you started construction you could not build your dream house because the code was being changed? Would that be fair?

Most people do not want a landfill in their community. However, as long as we continue to tear down buildings, build and remodel homes, we must have a place to dispose of the debris. Our challenge as legislators is to find that balance between protecting residents and the environment while providing for the proper disposal of C&DD waste.

To contact Senator Tom Niehaus call (614) 466-8082, e-mail him at tniehaus@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, or write to him at the Ohio Senate, Room 38, Statehouse, Columbus, OH 43215. Please include your home telephone number.

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