TRUMBULL COUNTY OEPA rule puts 29 on layoffs

OEPA says the facility can't accept pulverized waste.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The company that operates a Martin Luther King Avenue landfill temporarily laid off nearly three-quarters of its work force this week after suspending acceptance of waste unloaded from rail cars.
Paul Barley, operations manager at Warren Hills LLC, said 29 of the 39 workers were laid off Monday. He called it a temporary measure.
Barley said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has told the company that it can't accept material coming in that regulators can't identify, called pulverized waste.
"They said that if the material is unrecognizable waste, it's unacceptable because it's unidentifiable," Barley said.
He said the company is trying to schedule a meeting with regulators.
"We're trying to resolve these issues," Barley said. "We want to do the right thing and be a good corporate citizen."
Mike Settles, an OEPA spokesman, said the issue is pretty clear on the agency's side.
"If it's unidentifiable waste, it shouldn't be going to a CD & amp;D landfill," Settles said.
Construction and demolition debris landfills, which Warren Hills is, follow different guidelines than those established for municipal solid waste landfills.
The facility has received numerous citations in recent months when inspectors found material unacceptable in the working area of the landfill. Even a boot or a bottle would be considered solid waste and unacceptable at a CD & amp;D landfill.
Consent agreement
Last July, Warren Hills and Warren Recycling, which owns the landfill and operates the trash transfer station, signed a consent agreement with the Ohio attorney general's office.
The consent agreement was to settle violations stemming in part from a case that resulted in criminal charges against the company in 2001 for dumping wooden products without the proper license.
The attorney general's office has filed a motion in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that the companies be held in contempt of court for not complying with some aspects.
One aspect the companies are accused of not complying with is a requirement for money to be set aside for closure and post-closure concerns at the landfill.
That motion is pending.
The company proposed being allowed to accept more waste per day for a while, which would enable the facility to generate more revenue and allow it to comply with the consent agreement.
"That's not a solution that's acceptable to the agency," Settles said.