Club 3000 president complains to waste district about overloaded trucks

By Barb Limbacher
T-R Staff Correspondent

BOLIVAR - Tom O’Dell, a resident of Bolivar [and Club 3000 president], told the board of directors of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District that if an agreement is reached between Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility and Pike Township trustees then something needs to be done about the truck overloads.

At issue is the 170 acres trustees rezoned so Countywide RDF could expand. The matter was taken to court and found to be not in compliance. . . Read more

American Landfill to check monitoring wells

By Barb Limbacher
T-R Staff Correspondent

EDITOR’S NOTE: A Times-Reporter representative was in error when he indicated the newspaper endorses American Landfill’s request for expansion Thursday night. Positions on such issues are confined to The T-R editorial pages.

MAGNOLIA – Beth Schmucker said Friday the technical team at American Landfill will review comments made by Dr. Julie Weatherington-Ric[e], who said that for 30 years, millions of gallons of leachate (garbage juice) have been in the monitoring wells.

Schmucker, community relations manager for the landfill operated by Waste Management of Ohio, said the team also will look at the wells.

Weatherington-Rice, a senior scientist for Bennett and Williams Environmental Consultants Inc. at Columbus, had spoken Thursday night at an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency public hearing attended by more than 300. She said the leachate came from the old unlined portions of the landfill. . . Read more

"Landfill has made out-of-state waste more of a priority"

Landfill reopens to local trash haulers
Facility was closed twice in 6 months

By Steve Murphy
Blade staff writer

FOSTORIA - The Sunny Farms Landfill yesterday received state approval to open a newly constructed cell, ending a three-week closure for local trash haulers.

The shutdown, which began Jan. 20, was the second time in less than six months that the facility south of Fostoria was closed to loads of local trash, forcing area refuse firms to send truckloads of trash to landfills in Findlay, Carey, Ohio, and other outlying areas. . . Read more

Waste Management to pay $2.8M fine for landfill violations

Waimanalo Gulch Landfill hit with $2.8M fine

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The Hawai'i state Department of Health has fined the city and Waste Management Hawaii for operational deficiencies at the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill. Trash was being compacted yesterday at the landfill before dirt could be piled on. Dennis Oda / doda@starbulletin.com

Citations justify complaints, say Waianae area politicians

By Diana Leone / Honolulu Star-Bulletin Staff Writer

HONOLULU, Hawai'i - A $2.8 million state fine for permit violations at the city's Waimanalo Gulch Landfill justifies what Waianae Coast residents say they have been complaining about all along, lawmakers contend.

"In my view it legitimizes all the concerns we've been raising over the past year -- both my office and the Council and, most importantly, the community," City Councilman Todd Apo, who represents the Waianae area, said yesterday.

"Now we find that we weren't imagining that smell, as they told us we were," said state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Waianae). "The odor was because they did not cover sludge as it came in."

Hanabusa also questioned whether a $2.8 million fine would be enough to make the Waianae Coast landfill operator change its ways because of the profit the city makes of $30 million to $50 million a year.

A Department of Health order issued yesterday against the city and its contractor Waste Management Hawaii lists 18 violations of the operating permit for the landfill. . . Read more

SEC's fraud charges upheld against former Waste Management exec

Former officer falsified Waste Management data, jury says

By Bill Hensel, Jr.
Houston Chronicle
February 3, 2006

HOUSTON, Texas - A federal court jury in Houston has found a former executive for Waste Management filed false regulatory documents and engaged in insider trading. . . Read more

Public meetings on Illinois landfill expansion

WHOI ABC TV-19
By Jessica Wheeler
Feb. 2, 2006

POTTSTOWN, Ill. - Public meetings begin in two weeks for comment on the proposed expansion of a Peoria County toxic dump. Those who live around the PDC Landfill in Pottstown are protesting its expansion, saying it's not safe. Peoria County administrators are holding the meetings so both sides can present the facts.

The meetings begin on Tuesday February 21st at 1 PM, and will continue each day through the 28th, at the ITOO Society on Farmington Rd. in Peoria.

Club 3000 NOTE: The Ohio EPA meeting process in Sandy Township involved one expedited four hour session and limited all testimony to five minutes per person and refused to allow witnesses to yield time to another speaker.

View original article

Landfill "garbage juice" caused massive contamination, OSU expert says

Testimony heard on landfill expansion

By Barb Limbacher
T-R Staff Correspondent

MAGNOLIA – Testimony from Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice, a senior scientist for Bennett and Williams Environmental Consultants Inc. at Columbus, brought mixed reactions from an audience of more than 300 during a public hearing Thursday on the expansion of American Landfill at Waynesburg.

The session was held in Sandy Valley High by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

American Landfill has received preliminary approval of its application for expansion. Owned by Waste Management of Ohio, the business is seeking a lateral and vertical expansion of its current 234-acre landfill. It would expand the life of the landfill for at least 18 years, according to information provided by OEPA at the hearing. . . Read more

Got Arsenic?

OhioEPA PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER
P.O. Box 1049, 122 S. Front St.
Columbus, OH 43216-1049
Tele: (614) 644-2160 Fax: (614) 644-2737

NEWS RELEASE

For Release: February 3, 2006
Media Contact: Linda Fee Oros, (614) 644-2160

Arsenic Standard has Gone into Effect

Almost 90 percent of Ohio's public water systems -- including all those that draw from surface water -- are meeting the more stringent arsenic standard that went into effect January 1. Ohio EPA is working with more than 100 systems that need to demonstrate compliance. . . Read more

Citizens pack Ohio EPA hearing in Stark

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"American" Landfill called unsafe

Grass-roots group urges state agency to reject proposal for site expansion
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By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal Staff Writer

MAGNOLIA - Waste Management filed the expansion request in 1999. Its American Landfill Inc. is seeking a vertical and lateral expansion of the 234-acre landfill.

The lateral expansion would add 160 acres to the west and east of the current landfill. The vertical expansion would allow the company to pile the trash higher on 178 acres.

Waynesburg resident Brenda Griffith (left) questions Ohio EPA official Kurt Princic in a public hearing Thursday night in Sandy Valley High School. The EPA is considering a request to expand the 234-acre American Landfill in Stark County's Sandy Township. Mike Cardew / Akron Beacon Journal

That would bring the total landfill capacity to nearly 125 million cubic yards, enough to fill Akron's Rubber Bowl more than 640 times. It would extend the landfill's life by at least 18 years.
Read more

Landfill stench draws complaints

By Scott Spitler
Tauton Gazette Staff Writer

Anyone living within sniffing distance of the city landfill can expect a certain level of unpleasantness, but for Mary Butler and other residents of Floral Street the stench has been getting progressively worse

TAUTON, Mass - "I think it has gotten stronger as the years have gone by," Butler, who has lived on Floral for 45 years, said yesterday. "When you get up in the morning or late at night and you go to the door it is really putrid."

The smell has drawn the attention of the City Council and pressure is being put on Waste Management Inc., the company operating the dump, to alleviate the odor problem.

"I don't hope they're going to do something, I know they're going to do something or the full weight of the municipal council will force them to," said Daniel Mansour Barbour, a City Councilor and resident of Floral Street for 36 years. . . Read more

Hundreds oppose landfill expansion

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By Robert Wang
Repository Staff Writer

MAGNOLIA - With the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency close to deciding whether to grant final approval of the American Landfill’s expansion, residents, politicians and activists staged their goal-line stand against the landfill at a public hearing Thursday evening.

More than 300 people packed into the Sandy Valley High School auditorium. The crowd appeared overwhelmingly opposed to the expansion, which would involve placing new waste on top of 164 acres of existing waste and growing the landfill’s footprint by 104 acres. The Ohio EPA gave preliminary approval of the expansion of the Sandy Township landfill in December. The expansion is expected to allow the landfill to operate for at least 40 more years.

Daniel Fonte, 61, of Osnaburg Township (left) asks Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials how high American Landfill would be after its planned expansion and how much the extra waste would weigh. Fonte posed his question at a public hearing on the expansion that the EPA held Thursday night. Officials said they’d have to look up the answer. Repository Photo by Bob Rossiter

Citizens raise questions

Environmental consultants hired by the group Citizens Against American Landfill questioned the data the landfill provided the EPA. They said no one has been able to account for what happened to the liquified waste from the old, unlined parts of the landfill. .Read more

More East Coast waste coming to Ohio

Waste transfer station gets ok
Ohio EPA approves permits for Stark County firm to build Canton facility that will take rail shipments

By Bob Downing, staff writer
Akron Beacon Journal

CANTON - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has approved permits for a Stark County company to build a new transfer station in Canton to accept rail shipments of waste.

JMW Trucking Services plans to expand its operation and build an enclosed facility for certain kinds of waste being shipped by train from the East Coast to 1800 Allen Ave. S.E.

The EPA action came despite vocal opposition from the city of Canton and neighbors concerned about odors and increased truck traffic. . . Read more

Law may not be on residents’ side

Canton Repository Editorial

CANTON - Residents of southeast Canton have asked the city Law Department to fight the state’s approval of an expansion project at a waste transfer station on Allen Avenue SE. As Law Director Joseph Martuccio says, the city’s lawyers may not find a legal basis for an appeal. If that is the case, we urge residents and the city to work with JMW Trucking Services to prevent problems before they can occur. Read more

Oelslager bill to give public a better chance in challenging EPA

By Paul E. Kostyu
Copley Columbus Bureau Chief
The Repository

COLUMBUS – A Stark County lawmaker is crafting legislation to give citizens, businesses and organizations a better chance at prevailing when they challenge a decision by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

State Rep. Scott Oelslager, R-North Canton, said Tuesday he drafted legislation in response to stories by Copley Ohio Newspapers in November that showed that those who disagree with the EPA have a 92 percent chance of losing should they take a case to the Environmental Review Appeals Commission.
Read more

Is more train trash headed to Ohio?

Truck waste transfer site gets permit

Canton Repository

CANTON - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is giving a local trucking company the final permits it needs to expand its solid waste transfer station.

JMW Trucking Services will be required to build paved roads and an enclosed facility where solid waste will be transferred from railcars to trucks before being driven to a landfill.

JMW now has an open-air facility at 1800 Allen Ave. SE. The new EPA permits will give the company the right to expand, allowing it to accept auto-interior materials — the spongy material stuffed inside seats known as auto fluff — and nonhazardous contaminated soil.

The facility will not take in household trash or garbage.

Neighbors had expressed concern about the expansion plans, citing the possibility of increased noise, dust, odors and traffic. . Read more

Arsenic law gets stricter

Sarno Road landfill faces changes in requirements for wood disposal

By Jim Waymer
Florida Today

MELBOURNE, Fla. - Dust puffs up like flour from Sarno landfill as trucks dump arsenic-laden boards from old docks, decks and fences.

As the wood decays, the poisonous and cancer-causing chemical element seeps into the groundwater because only sand and clay separates the dump from the Floridan aquifer.

A stricter federal limit on arsenic in drinking water -- in effect this month -- should guard against future cancer risk, experts say, as should a proposed state rule banning arsenic-treated wood at unlined landfills, such as the one in Melbourne.
Read more

Waste Management's American Landfill expansion hearing

Meeting Thursday on landfill expansion proposal

By Barb Limbacher
T-R Staff Correspondent,
The Times Reporter

MAGNOLIA – Jill Van Voorhis, president of Citizens Against American Landfill Expansion, said a public meeting set for Thursday at 7 p.m. will bring to light many of the grassroots organization’s concerns about the landfill expansion.

The hearing will be held in the Sandy Valley High auditorium at 5362 State Rt. 183, Magnolia.

CAALE’s case is overwhelming against American Landfill, Van Voorhis said Monday.

“We will prove why a final permit should not be granted,” she said. “We have evidence this site needs to be shut down, and the information will be revealed at the meeting Thursday night. We need to bring this out to the public.” . . Read more

Reminder - Feb. 2, 2006

Public Meeting - American Landfill
(Waste Management, Inc)

A proposal to expand the American Landfill in Stark County will be the focus of a February 2, 2006, public meeting.

The information session and public hearing will begin at 7 p.m. in the Sandy Valley High School auditorium, 5362 State Route 183 NE, Magnolia.

Citizens may testify at the public hearing or submit comments in writing through February 10, 2006.

Comments concerning the draft solid waste permit should be sent to: Ohio EPA, DSIWM, Attn: Systems Management Unit, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, Ohio 43216-1049. Comments concerning the air permit should be sent to: Canton City Health Department-Air Pollution Control Division, Attn: Dan Aleman, 420 Market Avenue North, Canton, Ohio 44702.

View original EPA notice

High school built on construction & debris landfill is sinking

A high school in Lynn is sinking

By Pauline Chiou
Anchor/Reporter, CBS4

LYNN, Mass. - A local high school is literally sinking into the ground and each time it moves, more of the building deteriorates.

Lynn Classical was built on a dump six years ago at a cost of more than $37 million and is already in need of some serious repairs. . . Read more

Maine touts Recycling Computer Monitors

First-in-the-nation law forces manufacturers to pick up recycling costs for computer monitors & televisions

By Jerry Harkavy
The Associated Press (AP)
Jan 18, 2006

PORTLAND, Maine — A first-in-the-nation law went into effect Wednesday in Maine, requiring makers of televisions and computer monitors to pick up the tab to recycle and safely dispose of their products once they are discarded.

Under the law, which mirrors the approach taken in Europe and Japan, manufacturers must shoulder the cost of sending electronics to recycling centers where toxic materials such as lead and mercury are removed. . . Read more

New California hazardous waste rules ban electronic dumping

New rules forbid dumping of used batteries, phones

By Paul Rogers
Knight Ridder

Calif. - Old digital camera? Dead batteries? Frazzled cell phone? Obsolete computer?

What was once just household clutter -- the common refuse of modern Silicon Valley life -- soon will be illegal to toss into your trash can.

Starting Feb. 9, new state hazardous waste rules will ban California residents from throwing most consumer electronics, batteries or mercury-containing products in the garbage. . .
Read more