News
Amount Of Hazardous Material Seeping From Landfill Unknown
By: Gretchen Gregory | The Logan Daily News Editor
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The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is not sure how much hazardous material is escaping from the Green I Landfill located along Hunters Woods Road, according to EPA Spokesperson Heather Lauer.
"There are several different areas where there is leachate that has escaped from the landfill itself," Lauer told The Logan Daily News Friday afternoon. "We don't know (how much there is). Because it's leachate, you're looking at how much water is getting in and how much water that comes in contact with waste."
A heavy rainfall creates more leachate as the rain seeps into the ground and comes in contact with the landfill below the soil. Once the leachate forms, it finds the most resistant path and leaks in various places around the landfill.
"If we have a really wet period of time and get a lot (of rain) that gets in there, then you could have a lot coming out," she noted. "It could be more diluted or less diluted, we just don’t know. That’s part of the reason we want to get it closed and capped and excluded from the elements."
The Green I Landfill site was in operation from 1970 to 1974, and there is an estimated 5,000 barrels of hazardous waste from Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and General Electric. In 1991, local residents and EPA officials started the process of attempting to cap the 10.5-acre area.
Contaminants leaching out from the 10.5-acre landfill which pose a threat to human health or the environment include, according to the EPA, acetone, benzene, benzoic acid, carbazole, ethylbenzene, trichlorothene, 1.4-dichlorobenzene, polychlorinated biphenyls and vinyl chloride.
The EPA has taken precautionary measures to monitor the leachate’s migration into neighboring areas, including drilling wells to monitor the depth at which the materials travel, as well as well water testing at neighboring homes. Fencing also has been constructed around the leachate sites to prevent people and animals from coming in contact with the materials.
The contaminants have been detected in shallow ground water but not the deeper regional aquifers used by residents as a source of potable well water. According to the EPA, periodic well sampling has taken place since 1985.
The EPA issued a cleanup plan for the landfill in December 2010, but Goodyear appealed the decision. The plan included placing a water-tight cap over the entire landfill.
According to Michael Sherron, site coordinator with the EPA’s Southeast District Office in Logan, the agency is back in the planning stages after Goodyear’s appeal, and held a public hearing in Logan on Wednesday evening to hear the concerns of local residents.
Several local residents voiced concerns about their well water, landscape of the area and condition of the roadway if construction begins.
The input will be used by the EPA to determine how to cap and cleanup the landfill site again, although the agency’s final decision could be appealed by Goodyear again.
Sherron said once cleanup is complete, the EPA hopes to eliminate 90 percent of the leachate.
Input from local residents about the cleanup is still being sought. Those interested in providing comments or concerns can address them to Michael Sherron, site coordinator, Ohio EPA Southeast District Office, 2195 E. Front St., Logan, Ohio, 43138; fax 740-385-6490; or email michael.sherron@epa.ohio.gov.
Comments will be accepted through the end of the business day on Friday, Feb. 21.