PIKE TWP.: Underground fires continue to burn at a landfill in southern Stark County.
The 258-acre Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility remains hot — with little evidence that the fires from a chemical reaction within the landfill are starting to abate.
Recent data show little decline since 2006 in landfill temperatures, emissions of hydrogen gas or production of added leachate (landfill liquid), spokesman Mike Settles of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said.
All are signs that Countywide’s chemical-reaction fires are continuing.
“Our current assessment is that the reaction is still taking place … and is not yet stopping,” Settles said.
No one knows when the fires might end, he said. The state and U.S. EPAs had said in mid-2009 it might take years.
Odor complaints, however, have dropped significantly in southern Stark and northern Tuscarawas counties. There was one Oct. 26, with the previous odor complaint dating back to April.
There is no evidence of any kind of health threat to the community from the landfill, Settles said.
“We are comfortable in stating that the reaction is well contained and monitored, and that landfill remediation systems are consistently maintained to our satisfaction,” he said.
Owner Republic Services and the Ohio EPA are closely monitoring the site.
Republic Services spokesman Jeff Kraus said the chemical reactions are “still active but contained.”
The landfill’s 88 acres that are burning are “stable, isolated and contained,” he said. “What’s happening is pretty much the same as it has been.”
One person not happy with the developments is Dick Harvey of Bolivar, a spokesman for Club 3000, the grass-roots group that has fought the landfill.
“The temperatures and other indicators are basically flat-lining, and there’s almost no sign of improvement,” he said. “It’s not getting better.
“We remain concerned because the problem has not been solved. It’s been covered with a Band-Aid. The problem is still there.”
Harvey said he checks progress reports filed by Countywide on the Ohio EPA’s website at www.epa.ohio.gov/pic/countywide.aspx.
Club 3000 is concerned the high temperatures could threaten the integrity of the synthetic liner under that portion of the landfill, Harvey said.
The EPA said several years ago the excessive heat might have compromised the liner, but proving if that happened is almost impossible, Settles said. There are layers of clay installed under the liner that probably would prevent problems, and there are monitoring wells around the site.
The agency has no evidence of leakage from the liner, he said.
The ongoing fires have received little attention or public comment.
The landfill’s 88-acre section with the fires and gases has been isolated and covered with a synthetic liner to keep moisture out and pungent gases in. More than 200 gas-extraction wells collect the gases before they are burned off.
The company is using the other 170 acres to take trash from Summit and other counties in Northeast Ohio. The landfill is one of the largest in Ohio, taking in about 1,500 tons daily. It is authorized to accept up to 7,800 tons.
Years of fires
Countywide’s fires were discovered in late 2005 and early 2006 when resulting noxious odors from the landfill repeatedly fouled the air for neighbors.
The fires were traced to a chemical reaction triggered when buried aluminum waste, called dross or salt cake, came into contact with landfill liquids.
Republic Services, based in Florida, has spent $85 million since early 2006 to correct the problems at Countywide, Kraus said.
The firm paid a $10 million fine to the Ohio EPA for past violations — $3 million to go to local projects in southern Stark and northern Tuscarawas counties and $7 million to the Ohio EPA.
This past spring, Republic Services completed moving 130,000 cubic feet of trash on 12 acres on the landfill’s southern flank. That was the last required cleanup step.
In 2006, that waste had slipped outside of the permitted area after landfill settling from the underground fires.
The highest landfill temperatures at Countywide are 200 degrees with an average wellhead temperature of 140 degrees, according to September data from the Ohio EPA.
In September 2010, the highest temperature was just above 200 degrees and the average was just below 150 degrees.
Normal landfill temperatures are 120 to 130 degrees.
Landfill temperatures at Countywide hit 270 degrees in 2008.
In other news, lawyers from both sides are busy taking depositions in a damage lawsuit filed by hundreds of landfill neighbors.
A total of about 200 depositions are scheduled to be completed by Dec. 1.
The case, filed in October 2008 in Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court, is scheduled to go to mediation in late January.
The suit, being handled by retired Geauga County Common Pleas Judge H.F. Inderlied Jr., once had 820 plaintiffs. That number has been reduced to just over 600, said Brecksville-based plaintiff attorney Steven D. Bell.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
