Landfill fire may spread to new area, EPA warns
The Akron Beacon Journal
PIKE TWP - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is convinced that underground fires in a 258-acre Stark County landfill are spreading throughout the landfill's original 88 acres.
EPA Director Chris Korleski, in a letter to Republic Services, said his agency is worried that the problems at Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township could spread into trash dumped in new areas of the landfill.
The dump runs along the east side of Interstate 77 south of Canton.
Previously, the problems identified by the EPA as underground fires and by the company as chemical reactions involving aluminum waste were found at the southern part of the dump in 32 of the original 88 acres.
Korleski, in his letter, said that an analysis of observations and data collected in August including concentrations of gases, charred material and tension cracks ''lead me to conclude that the fire is migrating throughout the 88 acres'' and threatening an area that is receiving trash.
Korleski ordered the company to stop placing waste in Cell 8A the active area after Oct. 15. That 13-acre cell lies in the northwest corner of the landfill and is the only area where trash is being dumped.
Korleski said that before Republic can open the adjacent 8B area for trash, the company must construct a firebreak along the part that must be closed on Oct. 15. The new area has yet to be approved by the EPA for use, but Korleski said the application will be expedited.
''In an effort to prevent further spread of the fire and to avoid adding additional fuel (waste) to the fire, I believe the installation of a firebreak is required to protect human health, safety and the environment,'' he said.
The firebreak probably will be a valley separating the two cells.
''Among other concerns, any firebreak that does not completely and physically separate the 88 acres from the current operating cell may result in the working face (where trash is dumped) and permitted expansion area being consumed by fire,'' he wrote.
The EPA's concern was triggered largely by high levels of carbon monoxide gas and high temperatures in the area between a section that had been closed Cell 5C along the southwest side and the active area, EPA spokesman Kurt Princic said in a presentation Friday at a meeting of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Solid Waste Management District.
The fear is that the fire may have spread from the closed area into the active section, which opened in 2005, he said.
He called the firebreak ''a prudent measure'' that will ensure that fires will not spread into the new garbage areas.
Company disagrees
Republic Services landfill manager Tim Vandersall said the company doesn't agree with the EPA's conclusions.
He said the company has drilled five gas-extraction wells in recent weeks in the area between the closed and active cells and has found no evidence of fires.
Vandersall said the company thinks the problem is contained, largely under control and will eventually be extinguished by capping the site and keeping oxygen and water away from the trash and aluminum wastes.
He said the company will work with the EPA to comply with Korleski's newest orders.
The EPA is still trying to determine what corrective action it will require at the landfill.
Odor complaints
In related developments, Princic said Countywide continues to produce odors, resulting in 70 complaints from neighbors in August and 33 in September.
The complaints are most numerous on days when there is drilling and other intrusive activities, he said.
Also, the EPA has concluded that the stability of a retaining wall along I-77 is not a major problem. ''At this time, there isn't concern for some kind of catastrophic failure,'' Princic said.
If slope problems reappear, the EPA feels confident there will be time to order corrective action, he said.
The EPA continues to investigate whether the landfill's synthetic liner has been damaged. The liner prevents liquids from leaching into the groundwater.
Temperatures in the leachate, or liquid runoff, are as hot as 186 degrees, and that is a big concern, he said.
The landfill one of the largest in Ohio handles about 6,000 tons of trash a day. It handles about half of Summit County's residential garbage.
View related articles:
Landfill loses ground
EPA orders firebreaks to be installed at landfill
EPA tells landfill to install firebreak
Director's Letter Requiring Countywide to Install a Firebreak
and Cease Waste Disposal in Cell 8A
