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Equipment can detect, track airborne contaminants
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, May 29, 2008
BOLIVAR: Using a bus equipped with a high-tech mobile laboratory, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted air-quality tests Wednesday on and near the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in southern Stark County.
The testing, which began at 8 a.m., was aimed at detecting benzene, toluene and xylene, common industrial solvents and contaminants.
David Mickunas, a chemist from the EPA's Environmental Response Team in Research Triangle Park, N.C., said the bus, with its trace atmospheric gas analyzer, produces almost instant results. But he declined to discuss the initial findings at Countywide until the results are certified by the agency.
A final report is likely in about two months, he said.
The EPA held a media briefing Wednesday and a tour of the 33-foot-long, New Jersey-based bus that has analyzed air samples at the World Trade Center in New York City and in New Orleans in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina.
Mickunas said the equipment will not only detect but also track airborne contaminants.
The one-day Countywide sampling by the bus and its staff of five will provide the EPA with a baseline look at what's in the air as the remedial work begins at the landfill, said agency staff member Mick Hans.
The 258-acre landfill in Pike Township has been plagued by underground fires and odor problems.
Paul Ruesch, another EPA staff member, said in a few weeks other equipment will be used to record levels of volatile organic compounds escaping from the landfill.
Republic Services Inc., the landfill owner, has submitted four work plans and the federal EPA anticipates approving those plans quickly so work can begin at Countywide, Ruesch said.
Landfill capping
Installing a system of clay and synthetic caps over the landfill's 88 acres where the problems have occurred since 2006 will likely begin in June, he said.
The new cap should significantly reduce odor problems in southern Stark and northern Tuscarawas counties, he said.
Landfill general manager Tim Vandersall said the capping will likely continue next year.
Florida-based Republic Services is continuing to cooperate with the federal and Ohio EPAs, the Ohio Department of Health and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Vandersall said.
By Dec. 31, Republic Services will have spent $50 million on dealing with the fires and odor problems at Countywide, he said.
Robert Frey, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health, said that agency is taking another look at the odor plumes from Countywide and trying to determine whether the concentrated plumes could have caused health problems.
These narrow plumes did not dissipate as might be expected, he said, and have traveled as far as North Canton, Massillon and Dover-New Philadelphia.
Frey said the makeup of those plumes and what kind of exposures might have been created are largely unknown, but that is something being looked at more closely.
EPA involvement
Dick Harvey, a spokesman for the grass-roots Club 3000, said the organization was grateful to have the federal EPA involved.
That sentiment was echoed by David Held, director of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Solid Waste Management District, who called the U.S. EPA involvement a ''very positive development.''
The problems at Countywide have been traced to the burial of aluminum waste, which reacts with liquids to cause odors, high temperatures and fires.
Republic Services is under Ohio and U.S. EPA orders to cap the 88-acre area, drain excess liquid from the landfill and improve the gas-extraction system to help curtail odors.
The landfill, one of the largest in Ohio, handles about 6,000 tons of trash a day, including about half of Summit County's residential garbage.
Ruesch said the federal EPA records on Countywide will be available for public review at the Bolivar Library.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
BOLIVAR: Using a bus equipped with a high-tech mobile laboratory, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted air-quality tests Wednesday on and near the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in southern Stark County.
Get the full article here.
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