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Monthslong project aimed at stopping spread of fires is likely to stir up odors
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Dec 06, 2008
BOLIVAR: Work will begin Monday to excavate a V-shaped firebreak through buried trash at a landfill in southern Stark County with fires and odor problems.
The work at the 258-acre Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township probably will increase odors through the winter for residents of southern Stark and northern Tuscarawas counties, said Paul Ruesch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Ruesch and Kurt Princic of the Ohio EPA announced the orders for the firebreak at Friday's meeting of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Solid Waste Management District. They then led a media tour of the landfill next to Interstate 77 at the Stark-Tuscarawas County line.
The barrier, expected to be
completed by late spring, is designed to keep the underground fires from spreading, Ruesch said. His agency still is unable to say what will be done to extinguish the fires.
The $6 million project will be funded by Florida-based Republic Services Inc., which owns and operates Countywide. It will require removing trash that is up to 80 feet deep and will create a valley that is 700 feet long and 400 feet wide between the landfill's original 88 acres, where the fires and odor problems originated, and the landfill's newer Cell 7.
Digging up buried trash to create a firebreak raises safety concerns because there's a risk of explosion from methane gas and the ignition of larger fires when oxygen reaches smoldering trash.
The U.S. and Ohio EPAs have expressed concern that the fires could move into the 25-acre Cell 7, a closed area without fires or odor problems.
Temperatures as high as 277 degrees have been recorded in three areas near Cell 7, and one gas-extraction well recently melted when temperatures hit 320 degrees.
The firebreak will require the removal of 400,000 cubic yards of trash, mostly buried in the past three years, Ruesch said. That's nearly enough trash to fill Akron's Rubber Bowl from top to bottom twice and is what the landfill typically handles in three months.
The work will be done for Republic Services by a contractor, Beaver Excavating, said landfill general manager Tim Vandersall, who pledged his company's support of the agencies' order.
The trash will be excavated in layers and moved to other areas of Countywide landfill, Ruesch said.
After each layer is removed, bulldozers will cover the exposed trash with dirt to minimize odors, he said.
Countywide also will be misting with a deodorizer to reduce the odors from uncovered trash, Ruesch said.
Agency personnel and a contractor hired by Republic Services will oversee moving the garbage to make sure no troublesome buried aluminum wastes are moved and that there are no problems.
Vandersall said his company believes that only 200 tons of aluminum wastes went into Cell 7. As much as 600,000 tons went into the landfill's original 88 acres.
The work will be done in 10-hour shifts with a holiday break from Dec. 25 to Jan. 5.
Doing the work through the winter might reduce the complaints from neighbors because people are indoors more, Ruesch said.
Club 3000, a grass-roots group based in Bolivar, has concerns about the firebreak, said spokesman Dick Harvey.
He said his group has ''serious concerns for the people up there.'' He urged people to pray for the workers digging up the exposed trash to create the firebreak.
''We're putting a Band-Aid on this hill,'' Harvey said of the firebreak. The landfill should be shut down until the problems are corrected, he said.
The underground fires, caused by aluminum waste coming in contact with landfill liquids, have been burning since late 2005 or early 2006.
A synthetic cap has been installed over much of the original 88 acres to keep out moisture and to keep odors from escaping. It is part of an EPA strategy to isolate and contain the fires and let them burn out.
The landfill takes in about half of Summit County's trash.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
BOLIVAR: Work will begin Monday to excavate a V-shaped firebreak through buried trash at a landfill in southern Stark County with fires and odor problems.
Get the full article here.
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