WARREN Landfill, officials reach deal

The leader of a residents group is skeptical that problems are addressed.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Owners of a Martin Luther King Avenue landfill have 180 days to install a system to monitor methane and hydrogen sulfide gas under an agreement reached with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The agreement meets the deadline for a deal involving Warren Hills, the company that manages Warren Recycling Inc.; OEPA; and the Ohio Attorney General's Office about outstanding violations at the landfill beginning in 1999. The company had accepted industrial solid waste at the facility, which is licensed to take construction and demolition waste only.
The agreement was filed Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
"I think this is a good situation," said Jack Stacy of Warren Hills. "This addresses any problems, either perceived or real, that have been in the news in the last year or so."
Debbie Roth, leader of the residents group Our Lives Count, which formed because of concerns about hydrogen sulfide and the landfill, is less convinced.
"I'm pleased that they did it, but I'm still skeptical," she said. "Just because they signed it doesn't mean this will fix all of our problems guaranteed."
Agency findings
Last week, officials from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said hydrogen sulfide found in homes near the landfill had created an "urgent public health hazard."
Warren Recycling also agreed to pay a $30,000 civil-penalty for violations of: operating a solid waste landfill without a permit or license, open dumping, unlawful acceptance of solid waste, failure to use a designated unloading zone to inspect waste, failure to operate and maintain a leachate collection system, failure to pay state tipping fees that haulers are charged for dumping at landfills, and creating a nuisance or health hazard.
"We're extremely pleased that we've been able to reach agreement with the state of Ohio," said Cleveland lawyer Steven Bell, who represented WRI. "We're hopeful that this will be of assistance in rebuilding the relationship between Warren Recycling and the people in the community."
The facility will start to address the items in the consent agreement immediately, Bell said.
Kara Allison, an OEPA spokeswoman, said although the case involves both WRI and Warren Hills, the $30,000 civil penalty applies to WRI only. Warren Hills became manager of the landfill earlier this year.
Under the agreement, the company must submit a plan to OEPA within 60 days for a system to extract gas and monitor surface concentrations of methane and hydrogen sulfide gases.
Stacy said that as a landfill for construction and demolition debris, Warren Hills doesn't produce much methane, but because of the hydrogen sulfide complaints, the company agreed to create a system to capture gas and release it through filtered vents.
The company also must establish a plan for what will happen to the landfill after it closes.
denise.dick@vindy.com