Landfill company addresses EPA, residents’ concerns

NEGLEY -- A landfill that has been the ire of some local environmentalists for several years is working to correct recent violations found by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

A group of protestors set up along the side of Front Street in Negley earlier this month to voice their opposition of the construction and demolition debris landfill operated by PennOhio Waste LLC.

The group included two former employees, Brandon and Bob Mercer, who claim they were fired from the company after expressing concerns about items being dropped off at the landfill that were not supposed to go there.

A company representative did not wish to comment when contacted about the matter and an email sent to a spokesperson for the company was not returned.

The majority of the group of protestors consisted of members of the Negley Dump Issues Facebook group moderated by Chelsea and Dana Musulin.

Chelsea Musulin said at the protest site that members are concerned about water contamination from the landfill, among many other concerns, including that it is possibly located on a land fault, which she said is against Ohio Revised Code.

"We are trying to get attention brought to the EPA about the violations," she said.

Some of the violations she pointed out include the amount of dust that comes off the vehicles that unload at the landfill which she said is caused by a lack of not rinsing the vehicles.

According to Ohio EPA documents available online, and provided by Ohio EPA Media Coordinator Anthony Chenault, the landfill was found in violation of nine separate Ohio laws during a partial inspection on July 12.

The company was notified of the violations in a letter from the EPA that was dated Aug. 1. At that time, the EPA gave the company 14 days to correct the violations or face a civil penalty.

The violations were:

-- No markers to identify whether recently filled areas were within the active licensed disposal area, resulting in the EPA finding some small piles of construction and demolition debris (C&DD) mixed with soil on the west side of the landfill between the landfill and the piles of mine spoil.

-- Various solid waste items, such as children's toys, fabrics, tires, etc. on the working face and partially exposed from the weekly cover. "Ohio EPA noted a lot of flies in the waste, which is unusual with C&DD," the letter stated.

-- It was impossible to clearly determine where the unloading zone ended and the working face began … several piles of debris were not placed within the proximity of the two identified cones.

-- As trucks were unloading into a cell the pickers were not inspecting and picking prohibited material from the unloading zone. Rather, they were attempting to remove the solid waste from the surface of the working face after the loads were compacted.

-- Flagging of C&DD, whereas the combustible debris was poking through the weekly cover.

-- A leachate sheen along the north side of a cell that was flowing out of the shell and outside of the active licensed disposal area.

-- Leachate ponding over the sand layer on the far west side of a cell, and there was no transducer to determine the depth of leachate in the cell. The EPA noted in the letter that this has been an ongoing violation.

In addition, "Ohio EPA is concerned about the current waste acceptance protocols. Prior to acceptance, the debris must be readily identifiable as C&DD as specified … the debris cannot be shredded, pulverized, or otherwise rendered to the extent that the debris is unidentifiable," the EPA said in the letter.

It went on to state that the Ohio EPA "has been told in the past that the pulverized debris would be unloaded and trucked to your Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Pennsylvania. Ohio EPA noted that there are no boxes available on-site to contain the prohibited material removed from the unloading zone/working face."

According to the letter, some solid waste was being removed and placed on the ground outside the active licensed disposal area. However, there wasn't a front-end loader or other equipment/resources to aid in prohibited material removal, as the pickers had to carry larger pieces of solid waste a long way from the disposal area.

The letter also stated that there wasn't anything available at the rail spur to contain unidentifiable/pulverized debris or solid waste that is being transferred from rail cars.

This reporter contacted the Ohio EPA over a week ago to see if the company was correcting the violations within the time frame. According to a letter sent to the company on Aug. 14 that was provided by Chenault, the company has corrected six of the original nine violations.

Violations corrected include no longer having solid waste protruding through the weekly cover; having a clearly designated and marked unloading zone; no more flagging of Cⅅ no more leachate outbreak along the northern slope of a cell; maintaining less than one foot of head of leachate on the liner in the landfill; and diverting surface/ground water from outside of the cell from entering the cell.

The company remains in violation of failure to identify limits of the active licensed disposal area, a small pile of C&DD mixed with soil that is adjacent to the mine spoil piles on the west side of the landfill, and the continuation of debris being dumped into the unloading zone and not being inspected.

The Ohio EPA gave the company another 14 days to correct these violations or face civil penalty.

As for some of the violations mentioned by the Negley Dump Issues Facebook group, the company was found in violation of the amount of dust and not rinsing vehicles in the past, but that violation was later corrected, according to online Ohio EPA documents.

PennOhio Waste LLC applied for a license renewal through the Ohio EPA on Aug. 2 that included a modification to increase the active licensed disposal area to construct a new cell this year.

kwhite@mojonews.com