Ring of fire

The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - Devising a solution to the problem of smoldering, smelly underground garbage at the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in southern Stark County just got more difficult. In a letter last week to Republic Services about its Pike Township landfill, Chris Korleski, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, warned of new evidence that underground fires are spreading.

Korleski, whose agency is studying a long-term solution, wisely is calling for a greater degree of caution in landfill operations. He has ordered the company to shift the area where garbage is received farther north, away from older, covered sections where fires have broken out and appear to be spreading. In addition, a fire break, most likely a berm constructed with clay soils, would separate a new active area of the landfill from closed areas....Read more.