Landfill is ‘No. 1 priority’ - New OEPA director pledges to address issues at Countywide
The Times-Reporter
BOLIVAR – Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Chris Korleski said Friday that addressing the issues surrounding Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility at East Sparta are his and the EPA’s “No. 1 priority.”
Korleski and Todd Thalhamer, the California EPA expert who was called in to determine whether Countywide has an underground fire, met briefly with the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste District Board of Directors at the board’s monthly meeting Friday attended by about 60 people.
Board members questioned the integrity of Countywide’s liner system, whether the event happening beneath Countywide is a fire and what type of health threat the landfill poses to the public.
Korleski said he shared those concerns but has yet to get answers himself, noting he was only in his second day in office.
“What we do know is that the landfill is significantly malfunctioning,” Korleski said.
Korleski set a firm deadline of Feb. 21 to make a recommendation to the Stark County Health Board concerning Countywide’s 2007 operating license.
“My feeling is that this situation has been going on for a while and someone needs to step up and take ownership,” he said. “I need to be the one to take ownership, and I will as the director of the Ohio EPA.”
Thalhamer said he has yet to make a determination as to whether Countywide is on fire. He and Korleski were to tour the landfill and meet with Countywide officials Friday.
“What’s happening at Countywide is a unique circumstance,” Thalhamer said. “Here you have a reactive metal in aluminum dross and the presence of leachate recirculation, which allowed the metal to react very rapidly and create high temperatures.”
Aluminum dross – an industrial waste product dumped at the landfill throughout the 1990s – is known to react to moisture and believed to be the cause of a strong stench that plagued area residents and motorists for much of 2006.
Thalhamer compared the reaction to a high school chemistry class experiment where a piece of sodium dropped into water can create a fire.
Environmental Club 3000 used its 10 minutes with Korleski and Thalhamer to show video taken at Countywide between April and September 2006.
Tom O’Dell, Club 3000 vice president, said he thought the video surprised Thalhamer because it exhibited specific circumstances he was told were not happening at the landfill.
“Part of the video showed two workers on a backhoe covering their mouth and nose because they were not wearing air packs and smoke was rolling out of where they dug,” O’Dell said, noting he shot the video from 500 feet away because Club 3000 was told members lacked the proper breathing apparatuses to be in the area.
Dick Harvey, a Club 3000 member, said some of the video showed instances of what he termed bubbling leachate as well as “towers of smoke” coming off of the area where waste cells were said to have dropped some 20 to 40 feet over the course of the past year.
“We just wanted to share our knowledge because they aren’t going to get information like this from anywhere else,” Harvey said.
During the meeting, William Franks, Stark County Health commissioner, presented the board with an internal memo from Waste Management – Countywide’s owner before a purchase by Republic Waste Services – dated May 4, 1993. That memo was written by then Countywide General Manager Greg Terwilliger.
“The letter basically states that they expected to accept three million pounds of aluminum dross per month and that they knew it would have to be stored separate from other waste and kept away from wet weather,” Franks said. “It specifically said they would have to avoid snowy and rainy condition.”
According to the memo: “Disposal facility shall minimize handling of material at working face and avoid mixing material with other solid wastes. Material shall be place adjacent to the active working face on top of existing soil and covered with additional soils at the end of the day. Surface water shall be directed away from the active disposal area. This disposal method shall serve to ‘encapsulate’ the waste within the landfill.”
Current Countywide General Manager Tim Vandersall said Friday he does not believe there is reason for Countywide to stop operating.
“If there were a facility that fully neglected to address its issues, I can see where that is possible – but that’s not Republic,” he said.
State Rep. Allen Sayre, D-Dover, said he plans to hold a meeting with Korleski in the near future.
“To this point, with all of the issues that have arose, I think its time to shut Countywide down and get the issues addressed to ensure the public’s safety,” Sayre said.
He said he plans to invite his fellow lawmakers to the meeting.
“For so long it seemed we have been calling a phone in Columbus and no one has been answering the call,” Tuscarawas County Commissioner Jim Seldenright told Korleski during the meeting. “I hope your visit and your words provide the Ohio EPA with a new face and a new direction.”
Tuscarawas County Commissioner Chris Abbuhl said he believes that the Stark County Health Department should act on its own to deny Countywide’s operating license in 2007.
“They have that authority, I don’t know why they don’t use it,” Abbuhl said.
Abbuhl sought an answer from Franks, and kept pressing the point. Franks said the OEPA director makes a recommendation to the health board to take action.
“We can’t get any clarity on the license. People have headaches and are nauseated because of the odor at Countywide,” Abbuhl said. “If OEPA was not involved, do you (board of health) have the power to revoke Countywide’s license?”
Franks responded, “Yes.”
Abbuhl also told OEPA Director Korleski that the board has been on a merry-go-round for a while, and there is a lot of distrust.
“We thought this odor problem should have been addressed a long time ago,” Abbuhl said.
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