Landfill woes far from over - Times Daily

The importance of avoiding landfill leachate escapes to landfill operators is once again made clear in this article which we found recently, where the problem is all about the release of leachate  into the nearby creek. It shows, yet again, how important it is to ensure that leachate is managed carefully. Which means that the city’s municipal solid waste landfill may be closed to new waste tipping, but it’s far from being off the local radar screen.

Here is an extract from the article:

The Florence City Council could vote tonight to pay its engineering consultant $21,130 to investigate the source of a leachate escape in February that ultimately led to the state issuing a notice of violation.

The contract with Highland Technical Services would also authorize the company to take steps to recover leachate — water polluted with garbage — from the cell from which it originally escaped. If that option is chosen, the cost will increase to $55,640.

The council voted recently to close the landfill to municipal solid waste, leaving the remaining space for construction and demolition debris. The landfill was running out space, and the council deadlocked for months on whether to open a final cell or close the landfill and hire a contractor to haul trash out of state. The latter option was chosen as a temporary emergency measure in December because the current cell filled in early January.

In March, the council voted to extend its contract with Waste Connections, which is operating a transfer station for the city.

The notice of violation from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management cited the release of leachate into nearby Cypress Creek during a rain event. The violation is considered serious, and the notice stated a monetary fine could be imposed.

The council’s 3-3 deadlock was broken when Councilman Sam Pendleton and Council President James Barnhart voted to extend the contract with Waste Connections. Pendleton said the violation convinced him the landfill has problems. Barnhart, who had been concerned with costs, said Waste Connections’ guarantee of a long-term steady price helped sway his decision.

View the original article here

New EPA Leachate Monitoring Rules Affect Local Landfills

New landfill rules will mean increased costs for old landfills in the US County, and include, five key areas, for a post-closure care period, post-closure care financial assurance, more post-closure care period imonitoring if there are judged to be health or environmental effects, and a procedure to adjust final closure financial assurance.

The full details are given from the Zanesville Post article which descrobes them, below. Please visit the original site:

ZANESVILLE -- The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new rules that would require the state's licensed construction and demolition debris landfills to regularly test groundwater for an expanded number of contaminants.

Two of the state's 55 licensed landfills which would be subject to the new rules are local -- Sidwell Materials' site off of Limestone Valley Road in Newton Township and the County Road 286 landfill in Coshocton County.

Sidwell Materials Asbestos Hazard Evaluation Specialist Drake Prouty said the company will abide by whatever rules and regulations ultimately are set forth by the agency.

He said that EPA representatives visit the landfill at 4620 Limestone Valley Road quarterly and for unannounced spot testing of groundwater at the 9-acre site, and no problems have been found.

A legislative study committee and the EPA proposed tougher regulations regarding water monitoring or leachate at the bottom of landfill sites in 2005, but backed off after officials complained the new regulations would be too expensive to comply with.

That proposal would have allowed for 64 different toxic chemicals to be tested for, instead of the 19 currently required by the EPA. The new proposal expands that number to 77 pollutants which could "leach" in to groundwater supplies, including iron, sulfate, manganese and even toxic adhesives.

Based on the prior study which determined lthat landfill leachate poses a threat to public health and the environment if released to ground water or surface water, and public comments received on the draft rules issued earlier this year, Ohio EPA developed the current proposed rules.

The amended proposed rules focus on five key areas:

- Five-year post-closure care period.

- Post-closure care financial assurance provided by the facility.

- Extension of post-closure care period if there are health or environmental effects.

- A procedure to adjust final closure financial assurance with the issuance of an annual license.

- Monitor landfill eachate at the bottom of the landfill for an established list of contaminants, and if detected, monitor ground water for the detected contaminant.

View the original article here

Leachate Removed from Illegal Irish Dump

The Irish Times has reported today on a serious environmental crime which unfortunately is costing the local community and the nation a lot of money to clean up. It is bad enough if the site has been filled with no more than municipal solid waste, or commercial waste. Let's hope that the operator as not been accepting hazardous waste, which could make the leachate unaccepatble for treatment at the sewage works. Read our quotation below and also visit the original article at the Irish Times:

THE CLEAN-UP by the Environmental Protection Agency of an illegal dump at Kerdiffstown, Co Kildare, which will take many years to complete is to move a step closer with the removal of 8.5 million litres of polluted liquid from the contaminated site.

(The video below is about a different site.)

The agency spent some €3 million in January and February last year fighting a fire at the dump which resulted in the release of toxic smoke over the Naas area for more than four weeks.

Nephin Trading and associated companies Dean Waste and Jenzsoph Ltd operated at the landfill and recycling facility for 14 years until the agency secured court orders in 2010 shutting it down.

Work last year focused on securing and containing the site to prevent further pollution. The agency is moving to the next phase of removing waste from the site.

The agency has siphoned off more than 8.5 million litres of “leachate” – contaminated liquid from the dump which would otherwise have percolated into the ground.

It is seeking haulage companies to transport the liquid to Dublin’s municipal sewage plant at Ringsend for processing in contracts worth up to €1.5 million for the next four years.

A spokesman for the agency said work was progressing well.

There was a “minor spill” during the collection of leachate last month when a holding tank was overfilled, and approximately 500 litres reached a drain which flows to the Grand Canal.

Corrective action was taken immediately and the impact was “very localised and short-lived”, the agency said.

Further contracts will be put out to tender shortly in relation to site management and investigation to determine the best way to remediate the dump. Some preliminary investigation work was undertaken earlier this year, with the drilling of 24 boreholes to determine the waste buried.

Once the best method for disposing of the solid waste has been determined, the agency hopes to begin excavation of the dump and demolition and removal of the infrastructure on site.

This work is expected to be largely complete by 2017 and will be followed by covering the landfill with soil and plants, and the installation of permanent gas and leachate controls. However, the agency estimates the site will require management until 2047.

While the cost of the clean-up has been estimated at more than €30 million, accurate costs will not be known until the precise nature of the waste has been determined. The agency is continuing several legal actions in an attempt to recoup the costs.

The High Court last year rejected an application by the agency to make the directors of Nephin Trading personally liable for the clean-up costs, because relevant EU regulations had not been transposed into Irish law.

View the original article here

Leachate Clean Up at a Closed Landfill - Success Announced

Don't you often get tired of the long succession of bad news stories throughout the media? Well at the "Leachate Blog" we are delighted to bring some good news for  change! The follwoing is a quote form the original article whioch appeared recently in the Little Falls Evening Times.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recently reclassified the Rose Valley Landfill site as a Class 4 site on the Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites. The result is that Rose Valley Landfill site no longer considered to present threat says the Little Falls Evening Times.

As a Class 4 site, the property is no longer considered to present a significant threat to public health and/or the environment.
The site is in the town of Russia, on a parcel of land between Rose Valley, Bromley and Military roads. Finch Brook runs along the side of the property. It is currently owned by the Estate of Gerald Crouch and Joyce Miller. Crouch was the owner-operator of the Rose Valley Landfill from 1963 to 1985, the time it was a hazardous waste disposal site. As a result, the site was added to the Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites as a Class 2 site in 1992. In 1998, the site was added to the State Superfund Program.
The DEC was concerned about levels of 1,1,1, TCA, 1,1,1-Trichloroethane (TCA) and 1-1-Dichloroethane in the soil and groundwater. The levels of these contaminants are unknown.

Tne well from a nearby residence was contaminated. A new well was drilled in 2006 and was still uncontaminated in 2009.
Remediation of the site was finished in spring 2008. It included consolidating contaminated soil on-site and placing it beneath a soil cap and erecting a fence to restrict access to the landfill.

A long-term monitoring program exists for the site which includes the collection and treatment of groundwater and leachate (water that carries in solution materials from the soil it has passed through). The site management plan and environmental easement addressed the remaining site contamination.

View the original article here

Woes pile up near dumping yard - Times of India

The GHMC has been dumping about 3,800 metric tonnes (MTs) of garbage daily in the 750-acre dump yard located about 35 kms from the city for the past few years.

Many villages like Haridaspally, Dammaiguda, Nagaram, which are located close to Jawaharnagar dump yard, have been facing ground water pollution due to continuous dumping over the years.

A few months ago, residents of Cheryala village in Keesara mandal had complained to Lokayukta that the lake in their village `Pedda Chervu' was getting polluted due to the leachate of Jawaharnagar.

Officials said Pedda Chervu is located in the downstream of Malkapur tank, which is close to Jawaharnagar. As leachate of Jawaharnagar was polluting Malkapur tank, water flowing into Pedda Chervu is also getting polluted.

After people complained of water pollution, the GHMC officials, a couple of months ago, had stopped inflows into Pedda Chervu by forming an earthen bund below the Jawaharnagar dump yard to ensure that the leachate does not enter the Malkapur tank.

Since the Pedda Chervu water had already got polluted, the Lokayukta has directed the GHMC to drain out water from the lake. Now, this has become a herculean task for the corporation officials as the tank is under the control of the minor irrigation department. GHMC officials approached the irrigation officials, who in turn sought instructions from the Ranga Reddy district collector.

The district collector did not give permission reportedly due to resentment from other villagers of Rampally, Kundapally and Godumpally, who are down streams of Pedda Chervu. The villagers expressed fear that the drained out lake water from Pedda Chervu might enter their lakes and tanks.

The water pollution in and around Jawaharnagar triggered huge protests three years ago. Villagers of Haridaspally and other villages had staged a dharna and even stopped garbage vehicles proceeding to Jawaharnagar as the dumping yard was not only causing ground water pollution but also roads were getting damaged due to heavy traffic. The GHMC assured them of laying roads, drinking water supply and street lights and other facilities.

While the roads and other facilities were provided, the GHMC recently paid about Rs 2.45 crore to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board to supply piped water to the villages of Dammaiguda, Nagaram, Haridaspally, Ahmedguda and Cheriyal apart from Jawaharnagar.

When contacted, GHMC executive engineer D Sudhakar said they have inspected the area on the directions of the Lokayukta and were taking necessary steps for preventing water pollution.

View the original article here

Damu inspects waste plant work at Sonsoddo - Times of India

MARGAO: Fatorda MLA Damodar Naik accompanied by the chief officer of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) inspected the Sonsoddo site on Tuesday morning to take stock of the status of the work of the garbage treatment plant carried out by Fomento-IL&FS.

Chief executive officer of Fomento, Sridhar Kamat, was also present on the occasion.

The BJP legislator voiced his displeasure over the failure of Fomento to put in place any adequate measures to control flow of leachate from the site onto the roads. The explanation offered by Kamat that the heavy rains impeded the leachate control work at the site failed to convince Naik who demanded that the situation be brought under control within two days.

Later speaking to reporters, Naik said that he had received several complaints from the residents of the area about leachate from Sonsoddo flowing onto the streets since the last several days. "It's over seven months that the site was handed over to Fomento by the MMC and it is yet to control leachate flow.

The situation is leading to contamination of wells in the vicinity and will turn out to be a health hazard if the leachate flow is not brought under control immediately," Naik said.

MMC councillors Narayan Fondekar, Raju Shirodkar, Ciriaca Rodrigues, municipal engineer Surendra Naik and sanitary inspector Viraj Arabekar were present for the inspection.

View the original article here