Tuesday, August 21, 2001
City officials expect the landfill will be expanded.
GIRARD -- LAS Recycling, a construction and demolition debris landfill, is to pay a $10,000 fine and install a thicker layer of topsoil when it closes a section of the landfill where solid waste was illegally dumped.
The fine and closure plan are part of a settlement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency that was announced Monday.
The closure plan applies to about nine acres where the state agency said solid waste was dumped in 1990 and 1991.
Kara Allison, an Ohio EPA spokeswoman, said no date has been set for closure, but the settlement sets the requirements for when the area is closed.
Officials of the Bundy Road landfill could not be reached.
To be filled: James Dobson, Girard deputy health commissioner, estimated LAS will fill the section of the landfill now under operation in about a year. The company is using about 25 to 30 acres and is expected to apply for permits that would allow it to expand, he said. He said the company has about 100 acres.
He said the settlement requires LAS to put a thicker layer of topsoil on the nine-acre area because of the solid waste. Construction and demolition debris landfills normally have thinner caps than solid waste landfills. The area will also be seeded with grass.
The Ohio EPA said the settlement is related to LAS violating agency orders in 1996. The company was to submit a plan for a final cap within 180 days of Jan. 5, 1996. The company missed the deadline, and the agency didn't approve of the plans that were submitted later.