Columbus EPA Meeting 4/30/07

GUARD Committee Members,
The Ohio EPA invited landfill owners, lawyers, designers, consultants, and citizens groups to their focus group meeting on April 30th in Columbus, Ohio. The purpose of the meeting was to review the "organization" of the documents that apply to existing landfills that do not expand their limits of debris placement. They are reorganizing those documents in order to incorporate the new requirements due to House Bill 397 which passed in December 2006.

The session was attended by four representatives [Debra Roth (Our Lives Count), Lauraine Breda (Citizens Against Lordstown Landfills), and Paul Oliva & Richard Natoli (Girard United Against Ruinous Dumping)] from Trumbull County citizens groups.

The EPA representatives reviewed the current version of Chapter 3745-400, and the possible changes they might make. There were 12 pages for that document sized 8 1/2" X 14". The meeting was scheduled from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM, and the first portion of the meeting was taken up with comments from different representatives about the complexity of the rules. They complained about "references" to other supporting documents, and then "references" in the supporting documents to yet a third document in some cases. Scott Heidenreich told me that the Ohio EPA is trying their best to limit references to two jumps maximum.

The most complaints came from the landfill owners, lawyers, and designers; they spent most of the morning complaining. It makes a person wonder if they are just trying to stall the implementation of the rules to keep from having to comply with the additional requirements from House Bill 397.

The afternoon was spent reviewing the changes and reorganization of Chapter 3745-400. It was interesting to listen to that because the more one hears about the different requirements such as construction, ground water monitoring, and hydrogen sulfide gas, the better your understanding becomes.

There is another meeting in Columbus on Wednesday, May 16th. If anyone is willing to make the trip, please get in touch with me, and I can send you the details.

Regards,
Richard Natoli
Secretary,
G.U.A.R.D. (Girard United Against Ruinous Dumping)