EPA responds to memo story about landfill
The Times-Reporter
EAST SPARTA - Mike Settles, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spokesman, said Tuesday that the EPA wasn’t accurately portrayed in a Sunday Akron Beacon Journal article that detailed an internal agency debate over a possible landfill fire at Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility at East Sparta.
Settles said the story, which cited memos and conversations among officials at the Columbus and Twinsburg EPA offices, made it sound like the EPA was hiding knowledge of a fire from the public.
“That’s just not true,” Settles said. “We’ve been up front about this from the start, and I’m bothered by the tone of the Beacon Journal article that basically said the EPA kept people in the dark.”
Settles recounted and produced numerous newspaper articles since last August from The Times-Reporter, the Canton Repository and Beacon Journal that referenced a possible landfill fire.
“Since August of last year we were getting a sense of what the source of the odors in the landfill would be,” Settles said. “We then found it was aluminum dross, which was not discussed initially when the subsidence (a drop of 20 to 40 feet in one of the waste cells at Countywide) was first viewed by the EPA in late July, early August.”
Settles said after determining that aluminum dross – an industrial waste that is known to be highly reactive with water – was involved, EPA officials discussed if the dross was reacting or if the landfill was on fire.
“Our field inspectors, the guys on the landfill itself, were not seeing signs of fire,” Settles said. “When Countywide was drilling wells for its gas extraction system – 3-foot-wide holes – our inspectors said there was not smoke and ash.”
Settles said part of the trouble with aluminum dross is that the same indicators for an aluminum dross reaction also indicate fire.
He said the EPA is awaiting a determination from Todd Thalhamer, an underground fire expert from the California EPA, who investigated last week.
“We do things here that not everyone is going to agree with,” he said. “There is no question that there has been a internal dispute about whether or not the landfill is on fire.
“Some people are really disappointed we didn’t go after the source as quickly as they had hoped, but our immediate concern was getting the odors from the landfill knocked down as quickly as possible so that local residents could go about their daily lives.”
Settles noted there has been some improvement with Countywide’s odor problem since the installation of its gas extraction system.
David Held, director of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste District, said Tuesday that his district continues to get a handful of odor complaints.
Held said he believes the EPA’s past attitude regarding Countywide is not indicative of its new administration’s intentions. The Ohio EPA now is under the direction of Chris Korleski.
“Clearly, we’ve seen more action from this EPA director in two days on the job than with previous director, from our prospective,” Held said. “Friday was the first time an EPA director has ever visited a Solid Waste District meeting. The previous director visited the landfill but never our district office.”
Korleski is expected to make a recommendation to the Stark County Board of Health by Feb. 21 regarding Countywide’s future operating license.
