Expert to examine landfill - OEPA call in firefighter to investigate at Countywide

By ZACH LINT
The Times-Reporter

EAST SPARTA – As early as next week, anxious residents of northern Tuscarawas and southern Stark counties who live near the landfill should know whether an underground fire is ultimately causing the air in their neighborhoods to be infected with offensive odors.

Environmental fire expert Todd Thalhamer has been called in by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the heat radiating from underneath a waste cell at Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility at East Sparta....Read more.

Is it a fire? EPA needs to know

The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - Could fire and a chemical reaction be mistaken for each other in an infrared image? We have no idea. Neither, apparently, does the Ohio EPA. But the agency wants to know — welcome news for residents who can’t escape the odor coming from the Countywide landfill in Pike Township.

The nasty smell that residents have put up with for months and months has been blamed on a chemical reaction involving decomposition of buried aluminum waste. But a pilot from Kent who made infrared pictures of the site in August and December thinks the problem might be the result of an underground fire, and a fire that is growing....Read more.

Burning about the landfill

The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency should delay renewing the operating permit for the Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility until the agency determines exactly what is happening underneath the landfill in Stark County. On Wednesday, state Sen. Kirk Schuring proposed such a stand, even the agency denying the renewal, in view of questions raised about conditions at the Pike Township facility. It is the responsible course while the state EPA investigates the problems....Read more.

Residents trash plans to expand Pinny landfill

By Jeff Kart
The Bay City Times

PINCONNING TWP, MI - The operators of Whitefeather Landfill in Pinconning Township promised on Tuesday that they'll resolve odor and other environmental problems there, but some residents said they're tired of promises.

About 50 people attended a public meeting and hearing on a proposed construction permit to expand the landfill, which would allow operators Republic Services of Michigan to pile trash about 18 feet higher on the west end of the site, and extend the landfill's life by about four years, or until 2021....Read more.

Fire below Countywide? - Landfill official disputes report of possible underground blaze

By ZACH LINT
The Times-Reporter

PIKE TWP - Is there a fire burning beneath Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility?

The Akron Beacon Journal reported Wednesday that a private citizen flying an airplane equipped with infrared cameras photographed the East Sparta landfill and found evidence of a fire burning and growing underneath a 30-acre tarp.

Mike Settles, an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spokesman, would only confirm Wednesday that unusually high heat is being generated in a problem cell that was the source of odors in 2006....Read more.

EPA investigating whether chemicals or flames are at work inside Countywide landfill

BY Ed Balint
The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is trying to figure out if an underground fire is burning at Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility.

There’s no question that heat is being generated beneath the landfill surface. It’s just a matter of what’s causing it, said Mike Settles, an EPA spokesman.

EPA officials have blamed the heat on a reaction caused by buried aluminum waste. However, Larry R. Davis, a pilot from Kent, said he suspects that thermal infrared images detect a fire at the landfill on Gracemont Avenue SW....Read more.

Senator pushes for fixes at dump

By Bob Downing
The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - State Sen. J. Kirk Schuring, R-Jackson Township, said Wednesday he intends to push the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to delay its recommendation on a 2007 operating permit for the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility.

The reason: concern that a large fire may be burning -- and spreading -- under part of the 258-acre landfill in southern Stark County. Such a fire could create serious health and safety hazards for workers, neighbors and potentially 600,000 people who use water from an aquifer in east-central Ohio....Read more.

Ohio EPA delays Countywide decision again

The Times-Reporter

PIKE TWP - Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility at East Sparta will be able to continue is operations in 2007 on its 2006 permit at least for a few more weeks.

Laura Powell, acting director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, issued a letter to Stark County Health Commissioner William Franks Tuesday explaining that the OEPA will delay a recommendation on Countywide’s 2007 operating license until the OEPA’s newly-named director is up to speed....Read more.

EPA investigating whether Countywide's on fire

The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is investigating what may be an underground fire at Countywide landfill.

There’s no question that heat is being generated underground. It’s just a matter of what’s causing it, said Mike Settles, spokesman for the Ohio EPA.

EPA officials previously suspected it was caused by a chemical reaction involving aluminum waste buried in the landfill, which is formally known as Countywie Recycling & Disposal Facility. However, Larry R. Davis, a pilot from Kent, said he believes his thermal infrared images detect a fire....Read more.

Possible fire at landfill probed

By Bob Downing
The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - A whitish glow showing heat radiating from the Countywide Disposal & Recycling Facility in southern Stark County posed an ominous image on the monitor in Larry Davis' airplane.

On the ground, nothing was visible in the darkness on Dec. 30.

But for Davis -- a Kent pilot who has conducted similar flights with his thermal infrared detection equipment for federal and state agencies -- the whitish glow in his cockpit was convincing evidence of what he has believed for months:

A huge underground fire is burning -- and growing -- at the landfill....Read more.

Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility opened in 1991 and accepts...

The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility opened in 1991 and accepts trash only from within the state (27 counties in Northern Ohio).

SIZE

Accepts up to 6,000 tons of trash a day. The landfill received 207,000 tons of trash from Summit County in 2006....Read more.

More time needed to solve landfill stink

The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on Monday said it needs more time to determine what to do about a foul-smelling landfill in southern Stark County.

The agency had been expected to make a recommendation by Dec. 31 on the 2007 operating permit for Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility in Pike Township to the Stark County Health Department....Read more.