Calif. EPA consultant says Countywide fuels 2 fires
BY Paul E. Kostyu
The Canton Repository
COLUMBUS - The Countywide landfill in southern Stark County is on fire, according to a consultant’s preliminary report.
Todd Thalhamer, a landfill-fire expert for the California Environmental Protection Agency, said in a report released late Friday that the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township “is experiencing a classic metal fire and smoldering fire.”
He said neither fire “is the characteristic underground fire documented in the literature or seen in the field,” but he does not “anticipate a catastrophic event occurring.”
Still, he suggested the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Countywide produce a document addressing evacuation routes, shelter locations, response resources “and other issue (sic) under the community right to know.”
And Thalhamer said he doesn’t believe “anyone can fully understand the entire event (at the landfill) due to its complexities.”
EPA’S RESPONSE
Mike Settles, a spokesman for the Ohio EPA, said Director Christopher Korleski and his staff have not had time to “closely review the e-mail (from Thalhamer) or consider its contents.”
Settles said the agency would not comment on the report’s contents or any other issue concerning Countywide until Korleski “is able to fully review all the material presented and make a landfill license recommendation to the Stark County Health Department.” That is expected Wednesday.
The agency released Thalhamer’s report after a public records request from Copley Ohio Newspapers. As a result, the report was sent to other news outlets as well as local officials, Countywide Landfill and Club 3000, a citizens group opposed to the landfill.
Settles said Thalhamer opposed releasing the report publicly and would not comment about it.
COUNTYWIDE RESPONDS
“We have two other very well-respected experts who have been on this project for nine months,” said Tim Vandersall, Countywide’s general manager. “They’ve had nine months to sort data and collect additional data. And they say there’s no fire.
“It doesn’t matter what you call it. It’s a label — rapid decomposition, composting, reaction. The question is, is Countywide and Republic (Services of Ohio) responding, and the answer is yes. We’ve gone beyond what the EPA has requested.”
Vandersall said the landfill is “absolutely safe. We know our landfill and have no concerns.”
COMPLICATED CASE
Environmental regulators, consultants, activists, Vandersall and a pilot have argued since August over whether an underground fire is burning at the landfill.
“All indications pointed to a fire,” said Dick Harvey, of Bolivar and a board member of Club 3000. “For a long time no one believed us.”
As late as December, the Ohio EPA said it didn’t think there was a fire at the landfill. Instead, it agreed with the landfill’s evaluation that disintegrating aluminum waste was the most likely cause of the heat and stench at the landfill.
A pilot took aerial thermal images of Countywide that he said indicate a growing underground fire.
That’s when the Ohio EPA called Thalhamer, whose report confirmed not only the fire, but two fires. He said one began in November 2005 and the other in February 2006. They continue to burn.
“I believe the event at this time has leveled off and may be decreasing depending on ... additional surveys.”
He said temperatures reached as high as 353 degrees and the landfill’s gas collection wells “are not in compliance” with the federal EPA’s standards.
He said the landfill “is experiencing remarkable settlement” in the area of the fires, causing the ground to drop 30 feet in less than a year.
Thalhamer’s report said that the metal fire of aluminum dross, a byproduct of aluminum processing, is “self-sustaining.” It in turn caused a second fire in the municipal waste, which is smoldering.
“Additionally, I am surmising that the majority of the odor complaints and settlement occurred after March or April 2006 when the smoldering event expanded ...”
“These odors were then driven from the landfill” by pressure from the metal fire and hydrogen gas.
LINER INTACT
Thalhamer said he agreed with Countywide officials that, except for the settlement, there hasn’t been damage to the landfill’s plastic liner, monitoring wells or clay buffer. But, he said, the Ohio EPA should establish “a more stringent temperature survey program” to monitor the waste fire, which he said doesn’t have the temperature or energy to damage the landfill.
The report also said the waste fire is producing carbon monoxide in the wells that is “immediately dangerous to life or health.” But Thalhamer added he didn’t expect anyone working at the facility to be exposed to those high levels.
“People are scared,” said Harvey, who lives just over a mile from the landfill. “There are gases and airborne particles. We hope they get this thing fixed or close it down.”
WHAT’S GOING ON AT COUNTYWIDE?
Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility is on fire in two ways, according to an EPA consultant who has examined the Pike Township landfill. According to Todd Thalhamer:
The Canton Repository
COLUMBUS - The Countywide landfill in southern Stark County is on fire, according to a consultant’s preliminary report.
Todd Thalhamer, a landfill-fire expert for the California Environmental Protection Agency, said in a report released late Friday that the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township “is experiencing a classic metal fire and smoldering fire.”
He said neither fire “is the characteristic underground fire documented in the literature or seen in the field,” but he does not “anticipate a catastrophic event occurring.”
Still, he suggested the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Countywide produce a document addressing evacuation routes, shelter locations, response resources “and other issue (sic) under the community right to know.”
And Thalhamer said he doesn’t believe “anyone can fully understand the entire event (at the landfill) due to its complexities.”
EPA’S RESPONSE
Mike Settles, a spokesman for the Ohio EPA, said Director Christopher Korleski and his staff have not had time to “closely review the e-mail (from Thalhamer) or consider its contents.”
Settles said the agency would not comment on the report’s contents or any other issue concerning Countywide until Korleski “is able to fully review all the material presented and make a landfill license recommendation to the Stark County Health Department.” That is expected Wednesday.
The agency released Thalhamer’s report after a public records request from Copley Ohio Newspapers. As a result, the report was sent to other news outlets as well as local officials, Countywide Landfill and Club 3000, a citizens group opposed to the landfill.
Settles said Thalhamer opposed releasing the report publicly and would not comment about it.
COUNTYWIDE RESPONDS
“We have two other very well-respected experts who have been on this project for nine months,” said Tim Vandersall, Countywide’s general manager. “They’ve had nine months to sort data and collect additional data. And they say there’s no fire.
“It doesn’t matter what you call it. It’s a label — rapid decomposition, composting, reaction. The question is, is Countywide and Republic (Services of Ohio) responding, and the answer is yes. We’ve gone beyond what the EPA has requested.”
Vandersall said the landfill is “absolutely safe. We know our landfill and have no concerns.”
COMPLICATED CASE
Environmental regulators, consultants, activists, Vandersall and a pilot have argued since August over whether an underground fire is burning at the landfill.
“All indications pointed to a fire,” said Dick Harvey, of Bolivar and a board member of Club 3000. “For a long time no one believed us.”
As late as December, the Ohio EPA said it didn’t think there was a fire at the landfill. Instead, it agreed with the landfill’s evaluation that disintegrating aluminum waste was the most likely cause of the heat and stench at the landfill.
A pilot took aerial thermal images of Countywide that he said indicate a growing underground fire.
That’s when the Ohio EPA called Thalhamer, whose report confirmed not only the fire, but two fires. He said one began in November 2005 and the other in February 2006. They continue to burn.
“I believe the event at this time has leveled off and may be decreasing depending on ... additional surveys.”
He said temperatures reached as high as 353 degrees and the landfill’s gas collection wells “are not in compliance” with the federal EPA’s standards.
He said the landfill “is experiencing remarkable settlement” in the area of the fires, causing the ground to drop 30 feet in less than a year.
Thalhamer’s report said that the metal fire of aluminum dross, a byproduct of aluminum processing, is “self-sustaining.” It in turn caused a second fire in the municipal waste, which is smoldering.
“Additionally, I am surmising that the majority of the odor complaints and settlement occurred after March or April 2006 when the smoldering event expanded ...”
“These odors were then driven from the landfill” by pressure from the metal fire and hydrogen gas.
LINER INTACT
Thalhamer said he agreed with Countywide officials that, except for the settlement, there hasn’t been damage to the landfill’s plastic liner, monitoring wells or clay buffer. But, he said, the Ohio EPA should establish “a more stringent temperature survey program” to monitor the waste fire, which he said doesn’t have the temperature or energy to damage the landfill.
The report also said the waste fire is producing carbon monoxide in the wells that is “immediately dangerous to life or health.” But Thalhamer added he didn’t expect anyone working at the facility to be exposed to those high levels.
“People are scared,” said Harvey, who lives just over a mile from the landfill. “There are gases and airborne particles. We hope they get this thing fixed or close it down.”
WHAT’S GOING ON AT COUNTYWIDE?
Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility is on fire in two ways, according to an EPA consultant who has examined the Pike Township landfill. According to Todd Thalhamer:
- Trouble started before December 2005.
- Aluminum waste buried in the landfill, mixed with liquid waste, created a self-sustaining fire that is generating heat and hydrogen gas.
- Fire in the aluminum raised temperatures to as high as 353 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The aluminum fire triggered a second, smoldering fire that’s burning through municipal waste.
- The landfill is producing carbon monoxide.
- The fire is causing parts of the landfill to settle.
