By RAYMOND L. SMITH Tribune Chronicle – December 7, 2007
CHAMPION — Area residents expressed a variety of concerns about the Lafarge Landfill in Lordstown and landfills planned for Hubbard and Girard during a nearly two-hour community forum Thursday night at Kent State University Trumbull Campus.
State Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-Hubbard, led the discussion of several dozen community residents and activists.
Rick Hernandez, a Hubbard resident and a member of Regional Environmental Alliance for Community Health (REACH), said he believes landfills are affecting the health of people living around them by polluting both the water tables and the air and they are affecting the value of their properties.
‘‘When you go to the bank to draw on the equity of your home, you might find out your equity is nothing if you live near a landfill,’’ he said.
But addressing air pollution complaints about the Lafarge landfill in Lordstown, Kevin Francis, a registered sanitarian with the Trumbull County Board of Health, said the department has conducted 3,000 air quality tests in a six-month period and has found no ‘‘smoking gun’’ that shows the landfill is creating hydrogen sulfide.
Questioned about the growth of the Lafarge plant, a company representative said the company is looking to expand the facility. The company is licensed to operate on 123 of the 300-plus acres it owns.
Kurt Princic, an environmental manager of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, told the group that the state is working to develop the rules that will be used to enforce legislation designed to strengthen construction and demolition debris laws and make it more expensive for companies outside of Ohio to ship their garbage to Ohio. The legislation is being developed in House Bill 397.
‘‘With no rules, HB 397 has no teeth,’’ Princic said. ‘‘There is nothing to enforce.’’
Princic said that when landfills close, the operators are responsible to make sure no leachate pollutes the area water tables for five years.
Currently, the companies are required to place at least two feet of good soil over the landfill and plant vegetation on top of it. The proposed legislation would require landfill owners to place 3 to 5 feet of soil on top of the landfills. Liners will have to be placed on the landfills to make sure water do not get into the demolition materials, creating leachate that will pollute area water tables.
Lillian Breedlove, a member of Girard United Against Ruinous Dumps (GUARD), cited a study that says Ohio has one of the highest levels of water pollution in the nation. Breedlove suggested the pollution has contributed to the area having a higher than normal incidents of cancer.
‘‘God did not make water toxic,’’ Breedlove said. ‘‘Something was placed in it to make it bad.’’
Hernandez said, ‘‘the way our tipping fees are structured makes it advantageous for companies outside of the state to dump their commercial construction and demolition debris in Ohio.’’
Bob Villers, a spokesman with the Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste District, said a way to prevent construction debris from coming into the state is to have them identify it as solid waste.
Trumbull county receives a higher percentage of landfill material than other areas of the state because it is on the Pennsylvania border and has a better than average rail system, he said.
REACH member Sally Shubert Hall said the state should not allow landfills to use slag from steel mills as liners, because the slag is filled with heavy metals creating a different pollution problem.
Commissioner Frank Fuda told the audience that one way to stop landfills from moving into communities is by zoning.
rsmith@tribune-chronicle.com
Friday, December 7, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Townhall meeting to discuss landfills
By RON SELAK JR.
Tribune Chronicle – December 6, 2007
WARREN--Some members of a local activist group upset that it’s been almost a year since new regulations governing construction and demolition debris landfills went into effect are questioning why nothing seemingly has been done under the guidelines.
They hope to get some answers tonight. A townhall meeting regarding construction and demolition debris landfills and the law enforcement issues surrounding them will be held 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. today at the Kent State University Trumbull Campus, 4314 Mahoning Ave. N.W., Champion. The meeting will be held in lecture hall A of the classroom administration building.
The townhall meeting will be used to address law enforcement issues surrounding Ohio’s many C&DD landfills where those concerned with landfills locally can quiz Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, state and other officials about the state of the state’s regulations.
The meeting is open to the public.
Much of the discussion is expected to surround Ohio’s now old law, designed to strengthen Ohio’s regulations, but what landfill watchers say is not being implemented.
It’s there, but it’s not being policed, said Rick Hernandez of Regional Environmental Alliance for Community Health (REACH), a watchdog group formed to promote environmental education.
OEPA spokesman Mike Settles said draft rules were drawn up in August 2006, and because of the strong interest in the topic the public comment period was extended from one month to three. The agency received some 1,400 comments, which needed responses, from people on both sides of the issue, he said.
“Nobody liked the rules, be it the citizens groups, be it the landfill operators, nor the legislators,” Settle said. Plus, Settles said, the agency wants to develop fair and equitable rules for the environment and landfills. “We want to have that pass muster legally and be scientifically sound and effective to protect the environment from the impact of the C&DD’s,” Settle said.
State Sen. Capri Cafaro is behind tonight’s meeting. “The objective is to raise awareness in the community and the county about the realities of the regulations and concerns surrounding C&DD landfills, which is what we have,” said Cafaro, D-Hubbard.
She said Ohio became the perfect breeding ground for C&DD landfills because of lax regulations -- Ohio didn’t regulate the facilities at all until 1990 -- and locally because of the railroad infrastructure, which has become the preferred method of transportation of the waste.
The new law has “made some good recommendations and steps in the right direction,” Cafaro said, but to her understanding, many of it’s advocates believe it doesn’t go far enough. She says the work done has been good, but more is still needed to make it cost prohibitive for landfills to set up shop in Ohio.
Some of the new rules include background checks for owners, operators and key employees; public hearing for new permits to install; more rigorous testing of leachate -- the fluid created when water soaks through the debris; and five years of monitoring after the facility closes.
Also, it calls for a 500-foot buffers between the debris and occupied dwellings, which include homes, churches, schools, hospitals and restaurants, certain streams, wetlands, lakes, parks and other nature areas, as well as a berm at least 6 feet high to separate the facility from nearby property.
rselak@tribune-chronicle.com
Tribune Chronicle – December 6, 2007
WARREN--Some members of a local activist group upset that it’s been almost a year since new regulations governing construction and demolition debris landfills went into effect are questioning why nothing seemingly has been done under the guidelines.
They hope to get some answers tonight. A townhall meeting regarding construction and demolition debris landfills and the law enforcement issues surrounding them will be held 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. today at the Kent State University Trumbull Campus, 4314 Mahoning Ave. N.W., Champion. The meeting will be held in lecture hall A of the classroom administration building.
The townhall meeting will be used to address law enforcement issues surrounding Ohio’s many C&DD landfills where those concerned with landfills locally can quiz Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, state and other officials about the state of the state’s regulations.
The meeting is open to the public.
Much of the discussion is expected to surround Ohio’s now old law, designed to strengthen Ohio’s regulations, but what landfill watchers say is not being implemented.
It’s there, but it’s not being policed, said Rick Hernandez of Regional Environmental Alliance for Community Health (REACH), a watchdog group formed to promote environmental education.
OEPA spokesman Mike Settles said draft rules were drawn up in August 2006, and because of the strong interest in the topic the public comment period was extended from one month to three. The agency received some 1,400 comments, which needed responses, from people on both sides of the issue, he said.
“Nobody liked the rules, be it the citizens groups, be it the landfill operators, nor the legislators,” Settle said. Plus, Settles said, the agency wants to develop fair and equitable rules for the environment and landfills. “We want to have that pass muster legally and be scientifically sound and effective to protect the environment from the impact of the C&DD’s,” Settle said.
State Sen. Capri Cafaro is behind tonight’s meeting. “The objective is to raise awareness in the community and the county about the realities of the regulations and concerns surrounding C&DD landfills, which is what we have,” said Cafaro, D-Hubbard.
She said Ohio became the perfect breeding ground for C&DD landfills because of lax regulations -- Ohio didn’t regulate the facilities at all until 1990 -- and locally because of the railroad infrastructure, which has become the preferred method of transportation of the waste.
The new law has “made some good recommendations and steps in the right direction,” Cafaro said, but to her understanding, many of it’s advocates believe it doesn’t go far enough. She says the work done has been good, but more is still needed to make it cost prohibitive for landfills to set up shop in Ohio.
Some of the new rules include background checks for owners, operators and key employees; public hearing for new permits to install; more rigorous testing of leachate -- the fluid created when water soaks through the debris; and five years of monitoring after the facility closes.
Also, it calls for a 500-foot buffers between the debris and occupied dwellings, which include homes, churches, schools, hospitals and restaurants, certain streams, wetlands, lakes, parks and other nature areas, as well as a berm at least 6 feet high to separate the facility from nearby property.
rselak@tribune-chronicle.com
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