EPA official: Odors at Countywide less frequent

By BARB LIMBACHER
The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR - The odors at Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility still are being detected but the frequency is going down, Kurt Princic, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency environmental manager at the Northeast District office told the board of directors of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District on Friday.

“We have taken eight separate (odor) surveys in May. The last one was on Memorial Day and we did not detect any odors. I am not saying the odors have gone away completely,” Princic said. “On two occasions we smelled no odor, three times on a scale of one to four, it was a one, and three times it was between a 1.5 and two. A four is the worst,” he said.

According to OEPA, Countywide has been working to improve the conditions at the landfill and comply with the OEPA orders....Read more.

Passing the smell test

The Akron Beacon Journal

PIKE TWP - Republic Waste Services of Ohio is anxious to cap the controversy emanating from its landfill in southern Stark County. To do so, the company has devised a plan to cover 88 acres of the 258-acre Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township with a synthetic liner, in effect, snuffing out smoldering underground fires. The fires have triggered the odor problem that has afflicted neighboring communities for months.

Will Flower, a spokesman for parent company Republic Services Inc. of Florida, is hopeful the Ohio EPA will approve the plan. Engineers hired by Republic rejected two alternatives, excavating the 88 acres or injecting chemicals to put out the fires, as too costly or too risky. As it is, capping part of the landfill would take an estimated three to six years compared to at least 10 years for excavation....Read more.