The Flint Journal
Original story posted Oct. 13 on MLive.com
RICHFIELD TWP. — Now that angry residents have had their say, it’s up to the state Department of Environmental Quality to decide by Dec. 12 if Richfield Management will be allowed to expand its landfill in Richfield Township.
For almost three hours Wednesday night, people with property around the controversial landfill on East Mt. Morris Road and local officials let DEQ representatives know they opposed a 7.51-acre expansion without safeguards from groundwater seeping into Holloway Reservoir, Genesee County’s backup water source for 400,000 people.
FJ: This is an ongoing drama of dispute and concern over landfill leachate ever since its most recent owners reopened the facility in 2002.
The residents are right. No landfill expansion should come without a permanent solution to keep contaminated leachate from groundwater and the Flint River.
With the landfill trucking the watery waste from the site for treatment now, and its representatives stating in June that they definitely don’t plan an onsite treatment plant, a proposal that county officials back appears to have the most promise:
“I ask you to consider a sanitary sewer for a permanent fix to this site before a permit is issued,” said Jeff Wright, Genesee County Drain Commissioner.
Wright, one of 21 speakers at a public hearing in Siple Elementary School, said Richfield’s current practice of trucking contaminated liquids from the 393-acre site is “temporary at best.”
Wright said an earlier estimate that it would cost $12 million to hook up to sanitary sewers in reality is $2 million, and could be built in nine months.
FJ: That’s quite an overage on the estimate, but we’ll take the lower figure gladly.
It would mean an end to years of arguing over the control of leachate from the landfill, and worries that it reaches nearby Holloway Reservoir.
“This is the long-term solution to that problem,” he said of the runoff.
Wright’s argument supported a resolution unanimously approved earlier Wednesday Oct. 12 by the Genesee County Board of Commissioners.
It said that as a condition for approval of the expansion, the DEQ should require Richfield to construct a connection to the county sanitary sewer system.
FJ: We agree.
A sewer line running to the landfill would be as close to a permanent fix to the leachate problem as possible.
What worries us is what happens to the leachate years hence, if or when the landfill is finally full or closed? Would those trucks continue to haul away thousands of gallons of that waste for treatment every day?
The county board resolution, presented by Patrick Gleason, local representative on the county unit, noted that there have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to work with Richfield Management on the issue.
“The construction of a connection to the sanitary sewer system provides the best and most environmentally sound option to managing leachate and wastewater generated from the Richfield landfill, both presently and for future generations,” the resolution stated.
FJ: The landfill owners years ago were allowed to reopen the facility on the condition that they address any lingering concerns from its operations in the past. Those legacy problems have been worse than the company had supposed, one of its representatives said several years ago.
Later, Bernie Rumbold, president of parent organization Richfield Equities, said Richfield would consider hooking up to the sewer line.
“We have been evaluating all kinds of options,” he said. “We are looking at all kinds of alternatives.”
“We are not commenting until we consider our decision,” he added. “We will work with the DEQ on our decision.”
FJ: We understand that this is a business, and that the ultimate cost of any solution will be a main factor.
Surely, though, a permanent sewer line would be cheaper in the long run — and more reliable — than running tankers from the landfill every day.
Expansion has been the long-term goal since the company bought and reopened the facility in 2002. It now operates a 41-acre landfill with 120 truck drivers on waste pickup, most who live in Genesee County, said Scott Kleinfield, operational manager.
Rebecca Fedewa, director of the Flint River Watershed Coalition, said the Flint River that passes through the area is vital to the community.
“This is an organization that has a very bad track record,” she said, pointing to almost a decade of problems with the landfill.
In 2008, the DEQ approved a construction permit allowing Richfield Management to build a third containment cell at its site.
FJ: Then, as now, the leachate was a primary worry and a major factor in the hearings.
Let the worry and the current permitting roadblock for this business end with a permanent solution to the landfill’s leachate.
Connect it to the county sanitary sewer system.
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