Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

Archive for the ‘landfills’ Category

Paying for the removal of the median along Blackcomb Way and its re-paving was a smart financial move for the municipality.

It is part of a financial agreement between the Resort Municipality of Whistler and the 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) explained chief administrative officer Bill Barratt.

Under the deal the RMOW will pay for paving upgrades needed for the 2010 Games, while VANOC will pay for the methane gas mitigation work needed at the site of the $46.8 million Rona High Performance Centre within the athletes’ village.

The deal cost the RMOW about $600,000 in paving, said Barratt.

It is not clear how much the methane work is costing VANOC, but its July board of directors meeting notes that $1.02 million was drawn from the contingency for methane gas mitigation work at the centre along with snow-making and ski run in-run out grading at Cypress and homologation work at the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympics Centre.

"It is a good financial plan," said Barratt, adding that it’s reflective of the strong partnership between the municipality and Olympic organizers.

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Ontario’s environmental watchdog has urged the province to shut down a controversial, 55-year-old garbage dump in Napanee.

The Ministry of Environment should immediately order the closing of the controversial Richmond Landfill site, Gord Miller, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner, recommends in his annual report, released yesterday (tues).

"The (commissioner) believes that there are compelling environmental reasons for (the ministry) to require the immediate, orderly closure of the site and no compelling social or economic reasons for continuing to keep it open," Miller states, in the report.

The site is operated by Waste Management of Canada. Spokesman Wes Muir, reached yesterday afternoon in Toronto, said he could not comment.

"We haven’t had a chance to review the report at this time and we’ll be providing comment at a later date," Muir said.

In 2006, the Ministry of the Environment rejected Waste Management’s bid to expand the landfill so that it could accept up to 750,000 tonnes of trash annually.

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Bad weather may delay completion of Freeport’s landfill closure

A recent spell of rainy weather may derail efforts to complete Freeport’s landfill project prior to the arrival of winter.

Sue Grans, spokesperson for William Charles Construction, said Wednesday the contractor remains optimistic about finishing the project this fall. However, Grans acknowledged recent weather has put the project’s completion in jeopardy.

“We feel comfortable that we are on schedule,” Grans said. “But the rain has not helped and the days are getting shorter.”

William Charles Construction is the project’s primary contractor. However, the closure effort includes the City of Freeport, engineering firm Fehr-Graham & Associates, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ben Bushman, project manager for Fehr-Graham, said Thursday he expects the majority of the landfill’s cover system to be completed this fall. However, contractors may struggle to establish the necessary “grass cover.”

“All of the earth moving will be complete this fall,” Bushman said. “Everything else is weather dependent, primarily the seeding.”

The vegetation, Bushman explained, serves more than an aesthetic purpose.

“If we cannot get adequate grass cover, we will run the risk of erosion, mainly due to the spring thaw,” he said.

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The Ontario Environmental Commissioner’s recommendation to close the Richmond Landfill Site immediately is “disappointing” for the company that operates the Napanee-area dump.

Wes Muir, director of communications for Waste Management, said the recommendation contained in Gord Miller’s annual report came as a surprise to his company. The site, he said, has active certificates of approval issued by the Ministry of the Environment.

“We were disappointed the environmental commissioner chose not to contact us to discuss this matter with us,” Muir said. “The Ministry of the Environment objected an opposition group’s request to close the site. What they came back with late last year is that our landfill is in accordance with its certificates of approval and … the ministry inspects our site for compliance.”

Muir said the monitoring looks into ground and surface water as well as air quality. Results indicate the site is safe, he said.

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FORSYTH COUNTY – Local residents filled the county administration building to voice their opposition to a new landfill off Ronald Reagan Boulevard. One local resident even dumped trash out onto the floor of a meeting room to show his disgust for the proposal.

The display, combined with vocal opposition, must have made an impression as the Forsyth County Planning Commission unanimously voted Aug. 25 against the rezoning for a construction and demolition landfill on 23.39 acres near the Lafarge Aggregates rock quarry. The proposal will next come before the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.
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State authorities are suing Bonzi Sanitation Landfill for millions of dollars needed to close it by early 2011.

The troubled landfill, at 2650 W. Hatch Road, west of Carpenter Road, also must correct groundwater contamination threatening the drinking water of 300 people in the Riverdale Park neighborhood three miles southwest of Modesto, California Attorney General Jerry Brown demands in the lawsuit.

“These people have really been able to skirt, duck and evade their obligations,” said Cris Carrigan, senior staff counsel with the state Water Resources Control Board, which has been on Bonzi’s tail for more than 20 years. “It’s gotten to the point where the board just didn’t think we had any other recourse (than to sue).”

Also, Riverdale Park residents this week received notices to boil water before drinking it for reasons unrelated to the landfill. Water in distribution lines has high levels of bacteria, a relatively common problem that could be corrected in a few days or less, a Stanislaus County official said. Read the rest of this entry »

A new plan for closing the town’s former landfill could clear a space for a skateboard park and other recreational uses, including a sidewalk connecting Hobomock Street with Learning Lane, officials said Monday.

The Board of Health, landfill manager Mike Valenti and a representative from Environmental Partners (the company engineering the project) provided selectmen with an updated plan for the landfill Monday night.

The landfill, located on Hobomock Street in front of the new recycling center, has not been used since the mid 1970s. The state Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the town to formally close the landfill by sealing, or “capping,” it with certain materials.

Board of Health member Lisa Cullity described the landfill cap as “a really giant, thick pool cover.”

The Board of Health has been studying the landfill for about 15 years, determining what’s buried, where and how deep, Cullity said.

The old plan was to truck in a large volume of contaminated materials, from big construction sites and other projects, to place over the old landfill and help cover the cost of the capping. Essentially, people would pay to get rid of their trash in Pembroke.

But a changing economy, less availability of materials and a lower price that likely would cover just 20 percent of the anticipated capping cost have led Pembroke officials to consider other options.

Environmental Partners was brought in about four months ago to help.

Company principal Mark White said, under the old plan, trucks would have brought in as much as 600,000 yards of material to fill in the site. There would have been a truck traveling through the center of town delivering materials every couple of minutes, Monday through Friday for about two years.

Several towns that have followed this plan have faced problems with managing the materials, both the cost of personnel and tracking what exactly is being dumped, Cullity said. The “fill” plan also would have left Pembroke with a hilly area that would not be usable for much more than walking over.

The new plan is to seal the approximately 20-acre landfill with a more permeable sandy/silty material rather than clay, allowed by the state DEP because studies have shown that what’s buried in the landfill is not dangerous.

“We have 15 years of gas study that show what’s in our ground just isn’t that bad. It just isn’t that harmful,” Cullity said.

Trucks still would have to deliver the cover material, but it would take a lot less with no fill material and a thinner cap of less than two feet, she said.

Including grading, drainage and construction, the project would cost an estimated $2.5 million, White said. The Board of Health receives about $50,000 every year at Town Meeting to cover ongoing engineering costs for the landfill closure.

The new design would make Pembroke eligible for low-interest loans from the state’s revolving fund, White said. Potential post-closure projects include renewable energy developments (wind and solar), walking paths connecting Hobomock Street with Learning Lane and a skate park.

“These are all things that make the state look at our project and say we’re not just looking for a money grab to slap a cover on our landfill and walk away,” Cullity said. “They want to see landfills turned into community assets, not community eyesores.”

White said they planned to prepare the site for closure and solicit bids during fiscal year 2012, two summers from now. Other projects, such as the skate park, could be started earlier and worked into the closure schedule.

A big, almost invisible, blue flame has been burning for years at Cedar Ridge Landfill where it’s seen more at night as Waste Management continues to dispose of methane, a byproduct of decomposing trash.

Harnessing the energy, however, "is something that’s caught on in a lot of places," according to Ken Haldin, spokesman for Waste Management, the company that owns the landfill west of Lewisburg.

Using the flammable gas for something other than a landfill nightlight is possible, but it’s not attracted a lot of attention here.

"We’ve seen these things coast to coast," Haldin said of two ways the energy in methane is used instead of burned off.

In Heggins, Pa. the Republican Herald of Pottsville, Pa., reports that a "gas-to-energy plant could reach its peak and power 7,000 homes within a year," according to employees at a township landfill.

A number of internal combustion engines run on methane and turn electric power generators.

In East Tennessee, "Chestnut Ridge, is like a mini-TVA power plant with four big CAT generators and a power station," Glenn Youngblood, director of landfill development for Waste Management, said. "The technology has gotten to the point that they change the oil on the run.

"There’s a site in Johnson City," Youngblood continued about a Waste Management operation. "There are companies that buy the gas and they pump it to businesses… for heating of a building… In Memphis at the south Shelby Site there is an industry at the site and they pump the gas to the industry."

And that’s the other use: A combustible gas that can be used in heaters for buildings and manufacturing products, according to Youngblood and Haldin.

"We have a location in North Georgia that provides energy to a neighboring poultry operation," the company spokesman said. "They’re taking as much gas as they can get."

"Our Palmetto Landfill in South Carolina provides gas energy to the BMW plant in Spartenburg," Haldin said. "They have a nine-mile line" to get the gas to the plant.

But, Youngblood said, there are limits.

"Before it starts to make sense it has to be at 1,200 cubic feet per minute flow of methane to burn…

"Cedar Ridge is at 600- to 900 cfm," Youngblood said.

That’s worthwhile "if we are relatively close to an industry that’s needing low Btu (British thermal unit) gas for brick kilns, building heating, or an asphalt plant," Youngblood said.

Asked about a candle factory, since one is under construction now at Lewisburg’s Business Park that’s nearly a mile from the landfill, Younglood replied, "They would potentially be a real candidate for a partnership."

The idea was presented to Monte Mertens, director of operations for Autom, the church supply company that’s established a call center, warehouse and shipping and receiving operations in the Business Park. Autom is also the company that purchased Will & Baumer, a Syracuse, N.Y., candle maker that’s being moved here.

"This is the first I’ve heard of it," Mertens replied about burning methane.

"Wax will be melted with natural gas heat," he said. "That’s the plan now. If there was another option like an environmentally alternative, we’d look at all options."

Pat Morgan, director of the Lewisburg Gas Department, confirmed information from other sources. She said the city utility made natural gas available to the business park.

"Natural Gas had to be out there for it to be a certified business park," Morgan said of the state requirement. "We support that and want the park to grow, and many of the industries that have come in do want natural gas, especially if they do any production at all. That’s one of the first things they look for."

The Gas Department "cut the expense (of extending natural gas pipes to the Business Park) by using our employees to put the lines in," Morgan said. "There was a time line to get it in and if we’d waited for the bid process it would have taken longer."

The gas utility, however, placed its lines along a route that won’t be interrupted by the state’s reconstruction of Mooresville Highway, she said.

City water lines are to be rebuilt by the Tennessee Department of Transportation because of the road’s reconstruction, according to city officials.

"My only concern was the new road coming in," Morgan said. "We actually put a station in along Mooresville Road. "We will not be moving lines at the business park. We consulted the state on that."

Meanwhile, Lewisburg’s Gas Department has "two customers out there" at the Business Park: Autom and U.S. Tank and Cryogenics, Morgan said.

"We’re looking forward to the candle company moving out there," she continued. "They will be using processed gas, natural gat to melt the candle wax.

The natural gas line "was put-in in-time for the first business to open" on Jan. 14, 2008, Morgan said.

"That’s our service area and I can’t see why someone would want to use methane instead of natural gas," she said.

As for availability, Youngblood says the availability of landfill-produced methane depends on the specifics of each landfill.

"There is a bell curve," he said. "Every site is different because of the difference in waste. It gets to a peak production… and then it starts to back off, but the window is a large time frame.

"We have a whole gas department in Houston and all they do is manage gas projects.

"There are costs involved in this … but it’s something less than natural gas and long term landfill gas would be evenly priced," he said, countering market price changes for natural gas.

"For a low Btu business that needs gas for hear – plastic extraction business. For those kinds of businesses, we have enough gas right now.

Nevertheless, the businessmen interviewed for his story were apparently unaware of the possibilities.

Noxious fumes that sent a teacher to the hospital, forced the evacuation of a child development center and had people within a 30-mile radius in southern Greenville County holding their noses Friday morning was traced to a fire at a landfill in Anderson County, officials said.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control didn’t take any air samples but concluded that there was no danger.

“We don’t have any reason to believe there’s a threat to air quality or public health,” DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick said.

Myrick said officials theorized that fumes from a sewer line breach in Greenville’s Eastside on Thursday may have compounded the problem.

South Greenville Fire Chief Ken Taylor said he traced the smell to the Big Creek landfill near Belton, about 10 miles from the Riley Child Development Center, where a teacher who complained of headache, nausea and burning in the eyes was taken to the hospital.

She was examined as a precaution and released, Greenville County School District spokesman Oby Lyles said.

One child felt ill and was taken home, he said.

Children at the center were moved next door to Ellen Woodside Elementary School, which is on lower ground and where the odor wasn’t as intense, Lyles said.

High humidity kept the bad air close to the ground, the fire chief said. It was mostly gone by noon, after the sun came out and breezes blew in, he said.

Rob Wall, district manager for Anderson Regional Landfill, a private company that operates the Big Creek facility, said the fire “was contained in a controlled area.”

“We worked in conjunction with local and state authorities during the process,” he told The Greenville News . “The cause of the fire is under investigation.”

The odor was first reported around 7:15 a.m. in the Moonville-Pelzer area and later spread to the Woodmont area and then to the Hillcrest High-Bryson Middle School area, Lyles said.

The heating, air-conditioning and ventilation systems in the schools were turned off while the air quality was checked, he said.

Officials first thought the source of the smell was a natural gas leak at Beech Springs Tabernacle in Ware Place, then they investigated a site along Cooley Bridge Road where work was being done on a water line that ran along a gas line.

But those were ruled out, and air tests done by the South Greenville Fire Department and a special team from the Greenville County Fire Department found no natural gas in or around the schools.

Dawn Chapman, whose son, Neal, is a fifth-grader at Ellen Woodside, described the smell as “a very foul, very strong odor.”

“It was enough to give you a headache,” she said. “The whole house, the entire yard smelled like rotten eggs.”

“It was horrible,” her son said.

Lacey Landrum, an employee of a Shell station on U.S. 25 in Ware Place, said customers were covering their noses with their shirts as they pumped gas.

“It was pretty bad,” she said. “The whole store smelled of it.”

Staff writer Nathaniel Cary contributed to this report.

NORRISTOWN — A modified closure plan for the Pottstown Landfill, located in West and Upper Pottsgrove, has been approved by the Department of Environmental Protection, according to a press release issued Tuesday.

The approved plan, submitted by Waste Management Disposal Services Inc. in 2008, includes the revisions proposed by the DEP in technical review and those made by the closure committee made up of Pottstown area officials

Among the revisions to the closure plan that Waste Management voluntarily adopted are a more frequent testing of methane gas stacks, periodic review of leachate flow from the landfill and enhanced security of the site, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

To view the comment and response document put together by the DEP after the July 2007 public hearing on the closure plan,

visit http://www.depweb.state.pa.us">www.depweb.state.pa.us and search for Pottstown Landfill.