Stark dump contains less aluminum
The Akron Beacon Journal
PIKE TWP - The volume of aluminum waste that was dumped in a landfill in southern Stark County has, in a way, shrunk.
Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility, where an underground fire is smoldering, took in about 1 million tons of aluminum dross -- not 13 million tons as has been widely cited.
Republic Services, the Florida-based company that owns and operates the 258-acre landfill, has notified the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency that the 13 million figure is incorrect, EPA spokesman Mike Settles said.
That figure appeared in a 2006 report done by a consulting firm for Republic Services and submitted to the state. It also appeared in preliminary findings and orders issued by the Ohio EPA. Media reports repeatedly cited the 13 million figure.
Settles said the company told the EPA that the consultant's report was vague and called the 13 million estimate a misunderstanding.
The discrepancy was recently called to the EPA's attention by the company, and the agency and the company both feel that the 1 million ton estimate is the correct one, Settles said.
The 13 million figure apparently included household trash as well as the aluminum waste that went into an 88-acre section of the landfill, where the fire is located.
Most of the aluminum waste that was buried at Countywide from 1993 to July 2006 came from a foundry in Uhrichsville in southern Tuscarawas County.
An expert on landfill fires hired by the Ohio EPA has determined that a chemical reaction triggered by liquid runoff coming into contact with the aluminum waste is taking place deep inside the landfill. It appears that the household trash also is smoldering underground, the consultant said.
The chemical reaction appears to have started in late 2005 and created major odor problems last summer in southern Stark and northern Tuscarawas counties, he said.
The Ohio EPA has recommended that the Stark County Health Department deny the landfill its 2007 operating permit. A closed-door hearing on the company's license request was held Thursday before Stark County Health Commissioner William Franks.
He heard testimony from Republic Waste Services of Ohio and from his staff and intends to make a recommendation to the Stark County Board of Health, perhaps at its May 9 meeting. An additional hearing probably will be held in late April.
Officials had no comment on Thursday's proceedings, which lasted much of the day.
The EPA and the company are negotiating findings and orders that include steps the EPA wants to impose at the dump to end the chemical reaction/fire and to eliminate the odors. Those talks are continuing.
