Monday, January 08, 2007

 

Waste board fights EPA rule

BY Robert Wang
The Canton Repository

BOLIVAR - As area residents continue to suffer from landfill odors, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is considering rule changes that local officials argue would reduce the agency's ability to deal with such odors in the future.

The board of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District voted Friday to file an objection with the EPA. The board directed the district's executive director, David Held, to testify against the proposed changes at a public hearing the EPA is holding Monday in Columbus.

"It's astounding what the EPA is proposing here," said Tuscarawas County Commissioner Kerry Metzger. "Hopefully, somebody in the bureaucracy of the EPA will have some common sense."

Tom O'Dell, the vice president of the environmental group Club 3000, said the group's members will take a bus to the hearing to protest the draft rules.

CLARIFICATION OR ABDICATION

The EPA's proposed provision says that the agency would not have to deal with all types of nuisance odors. Specifically, the EPA would not be responsible for addressing odors that do not endanger public health, cause injury, damage property and are not restricted under other rules.

EPA spokeswoman Linda Oros said the new rule is an attempt to define more clearly "what we've been doing all along" and "where our authority lies."

"I'm suspecting (district officials) don't understand the rule, that they don't understand what's intended," she said.

But the district's letter to the EPA says, "The proposed changes do not merely clarify existing policy as suggested, but make a significant change for the worse by diminishing the Ohio EPA's regulatory authority regarding air pollution nuisances."

The letter says the EPA's new definition of odor nuisance doesn't include odors that interfere "with enjoyment of the use of property." The letter suggests the changes would preclude the EPA from taking action against odor problems similar to that of the Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility in Pike Township. EPA officials have repeatedly said that the persistent odors of the last year don't pose a health threat.

Oros said the EPA has promised that the agency will postpone seeking adoption of any rule changes by a legislative committee until after Ted Strickland becomes governor Monday and appoints a new EPA director.

ODOR UPDATE

EPA environmental manager Kurt Princic, who briefed the district board, said:

  • The odor is less frequent and less intense but has not been eliminated.

  • Countywide has installed all the EPA-mandated equipment to fight the odor.

  • He can't rule out that high temperatures caused by chemical reactions in the landfill have not damaged the plastic liner that keeps waste from leaking out. But he said temperature readings around the liner show it's unlikely. Any leaked waste would be detected by monitoring wells before it got into drinking water.

The EPA has put off any possible enforcement action against Countywide until at least the end of January so staffers can do more inspections and determine whether the installation of two backup flares gets rid of the odor.