WARREN Mayor awaits data on landfill

Some residents think the city should listen to the experts.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Before the city moves to close Warren Recyling Inc.'s landfill, Mayor Hank Angelo wants to see data from the Ohio EPA that prove the landfill is the source of hydrogen sulfide stench.
The OEPA sent a letter to the city health department last week, saying wind data and odor complaints from residents identifies the construction and demolition debris landfill on Martin Luther King Avenue as the odor's source.
The agency also urged the city to take action through nuisance or landfill regulations to require the facility to fix the problem if negotiations between the company and the agency don't reach a settlement by July 1.
"I talked to Christopher Jones, who wrote the letter, this morning, and he indicated there is no immediate health danger," Angelo said Tuesday.
Release is iffy
The mayor said the city hasn't received the OEPA's data. Angelo said Jones, OEPA director, told him the agency may not be able to release the data because they're part of ongoing negotiations with the company.
The negotiations stem from a 1998 violation when the company accepted industrial solid waste at the facility. The facility is licensed to take construction and demolition waste only, not household or other solid waste.
"We're not going to take any action without the data that back it up or without the direction of the Ohio EPA," Angelo said.
Wind, odor data
Kara Allison, agency spokeswoman, said the information eventually will be released. The letter summarizes the conclusion that the wind data and odor complaints point to the landfill as the source.
"We're currently working on putting that data into a file form, which will be reviewed by our attorneys, and after that point it can be released," Allison said.
Angelo also objects to OEPA's tying the odor issue in with the solid waste violation.
"That should have no bearing on this," the mayor said.
Allison said it doesn't make sense to address only one problem when additional problems persist.
"When we reach a resolution it should address all of the issues at the site," she said.
Those who have been clamoring for a solution to the odor problem for about two years also are concerned.
"I'm just furious with Warren city officials right now," said Kay Anderson, Warren Township trustee.
She thought the OEPA letter would be a catalyst for the various entities to come together to address the problem.
"It's like they're questioning the credibility of the Ohio EPA and the ATSDR," Anderson said.
CDC spin-off
The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a nonregulatory wing of the Centers for Disease Control, has been studying the problem for about a year. Results are to be released June 27.
ATSDR previously listed the area around the landfill as a public health hazard because of the hydrogen sulfide problem, but didn't list it as the odor's source.
Debbie Roth, leader of the citizens' group Our Lives Count, which formed because of concerns about the odor, echoes Anderson's concerns.
"Why do they need data when they've got experts at the Ohio EPA, ATSDR and the U.S. EPA who are experts in this type of data and they won't accept their interpretation of the data," Roth said.
"Warren city officials are not technical experts on this, so why do they choose not to listen to the experts?"
dick@vindy.com