Man's body found at landfill

The Times-Reporter

EAST SPARTA - Workers at Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility on Gracemont St. SW, East Sparta, discovered the body of a black man while using equipment to push through debris at about 7:15 this morning.

The man is believed to be from the Canton area and was carrying identification, according to Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson, whose department is investigating....Read more.

Body found buried at Countywide

BY Lori Monsewicz
The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - A landfill operator moving trash around the Countywide landfill this morning found a dead man.

Stark County sheriff’s deputies and coroner’s investigators went to the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility, 3619 Gracemont St. SW, shortly after 7 a.m. when the operator called them after finding the fully clothed body. No further description was available, said Tim Vandersall, general manager and engineer of the landfill....Read more.

Body discovered at Stark County landfill

The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - The body of a 51-year-old man was discovered around 7:15 a.m. Thursday in the sprawling Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township in southern Stark County.

Will Flower, spokesman for landfill owner Republic Services of Ohio, said the body "came in with a load'' of refuse.

"We immediately contacted the local police,'' Flower said....Read more.

Countywide strikes a deal - Landfill owner agrees to pay $1.05 million in fines to OEPA

By ZACH LINT
The Times-Reporter

EAST SPARTA – The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency announced an agreement with Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility at East Sparta Wednesday, in which the landfill will pay more than $1 million in fines and follow strict orders to abate its odor issue and stop its underground fires.

Countywide’s parent company, Republic Waste Services, has 60 days to submit a plan to snuff out underground fires at the landfill. The plan must be approved by the OEPA.

Countywide also must revise its odor control plan, assess the landfill’s integrity and perform weekly air quality sampling.

In all, Republic will pay $1,050,000 in fines, $250,000 of which will be used to created a Community Benefit Project Fund....Read more.

EPA makes headway with area landfill

The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - The Ohio EPA may have made Stark County Health Commissioner William Franks’ job easier. Franks must soon recommend that his board either renew the operating permit for the Countywide landfill or shut the Pike Township facility down. Both options have drawbacks, but the Environmental Protection Agency’s agreement with Countywide’s owners, announced Wednesday, makes the idea of keeping the landfill open more palatable.

According to the EPA, Countywide has agreed to do more to prevent the problem that has plagued a large portion of the landfill for more than a year — a stinky combination of water and aluminum waste that has resulted in what an EPA consultant says is an underground fire....Read more.

Landfill told to snuff fire, close 88 acres

BY Edd Pritchard and Kelli Young
The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - The original section of Countywide landfill will close as part of a deal with the state, but Stark County health officials will be left to decide if the facility can continue operating.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Republic Services — owner of Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility — agreed to 16 orders aimed at ending odor problems that have plagued Countywide for more than a year.

Ohio EPA ordered Republic Services to find a way to extinguish a fire burning under the landfill’s original 88 acres. The state also fined the company more than $1 million....Read more.

Dump must douse fire

By Bob Downing
The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced strict orders to end underground fire and odor problems at the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in southern Stark County.

Under the negotiated agreement, owner Republic Services of Ohio must develop and submit a plan on extinguishing the underground fires at the Pike Township landfill within 60 days.

The company agreed to pay more than $1 million in fines because of the fires and odors at the 258-acre landfill. The problems were triggered by liquid runoff coming in contact with buried aluminum wastes....Read more.

Stark landfill to pay $1 million plus and close 88 acres

BY M.L. Schultze
The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility has agreed to pay more than $1 million in fines and relief and to close the original part of its Pike Township landfill.

The Ohio EPA announced the agreement this morning.

The landfill faced revocation of its license after an EPA consultant, Todd Thalhamer, and the EPA’s new director, Chris Korleski, concluded that more than a year of stench and gas emanating from the landfill was caused by two large underground fires....Read more.

Agreement reached on Countywide dump

The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency today announced an agreement with Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Stark County on stringent orders to end an underground fire and odor problems there.

Republic Services of Ohio must develop and submit a plan for suppressing the underground fire at the Pike Township facility within 60 days.

The EPA must approve the company's plan, and the agency has hired two consultants to help it assess that plan.

The company also agreed to pay more than $1 million in fines for the fire and odors at the 258-acre landfill....Read more.

Ohio EPA Orders Countywide Landfill to Take Tougher Actions to Control Odors

Ohio EPA News Release

COLUMBUS - Republic Services of Ohio has agreed to stringent Ohio EPA orders aimed at ending the odor nuisance and underground fire at Countywide Landfill in East Sparta.

Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski announced the agreement today. Director Korleski also notified the Stark County Health Department of the agreed upon Director's Findings and Orders in a letter to Commissioner Williams Franks. The Stark County Board of Health is the authority responsible for issuing the landfill's annual operating license and will consider the Director's Findings and Orders, as well as other criteria, before making a final decision on the landfill's 2007 license....Read more.

Reader’s Viewpoint: Record shows that Countywide Landfill officials utterly lack credibility

The Times-Reporter

To the Editor:

It is perplexing, given the track records involved, that new Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski would hand a decision as momentous as the renewal of Countywide landfill’s permit to operate over to a local bureaucrat, the Stark County Health Department commissioner, where this landfill’s problems have been ignored.

With each catastrophe, Countywide manager Tim Vandersall assures us all is well. The record shows Vandersall utterly lacks credibility. The wretched odors emanating from Countywide have not been, as characterized in the media, a problem for the last year. They have been around for years. But the same county health department and OEPA have fiddled while Rome – and Countywide – burned....Read more.

Just doing their job

The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR - Apparently, the Stark County Health Board isn’t happy with the Tuscarawas County commissioners, especially Commissioner Chris Abbuhl.

Abbuhl has requested that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency look into how health departments in Stark and Tuscarawas counties conduct their weekly landfill inspections. He is curious about the discrepancy between the number of “notice of violations” issued to landfills in Stark County (five) versus those in Tuscarawas County (more than 80) in 2005 and 2006....Read more.