MARTIN LUTHER KING BOULEVARD EPA makes a move to help clean up Warren Hills landfill

A citizens group spokeswoman is happy with the EPA's involvement.
WARREN -- The federal Environmental Protection Agency is taking preliminary steps to clean up Warren Hills landfill, an agency official confirmed Wednesday.
"It's time to take action, and we're going to take action that nobody else will," said Mark A. Durno, the on-scene coordinator for the EPA's Region V out of Westlake, Ohio.
The commercial landfill on Martin Luther King Boulevard Southwest has raised the ire of neighbors, who say the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide coming from there causes health problems.
Durno said the agency expects to spend up to $100,000 to collect data and samples there to determine the extent of contamination and the best system for addressing it. He said the full cost of the cleanup won't be known until the assessment, under way now, is done -- but it could exceed $1 million.
"We'll take action ourselves if Warren Hills doesn't fund these activities," Durno said. "We are going to ask for our money back."
Warren Hills, for now, has told the EPA that it doesn't have the money to tackle the project. Instead, the landfill operator is focused on talks with the Ohio EPA that would allow continued operations while incorporating the federal EPA's orders.
EPA mandate
In February, the U.S. EPA ordered the facility to put in place systems to substantially reduce or eliminate the hydrogen sulfide emissions in the neighborhood.
Warren Hills "has been very up front with us," Durno noted.
Debbie Roth of the residents' group Our Lives Count said it's better for the U.S. EPA to take on the cleanup, rather than continuing to wait for the landfill owners to do so. The group has complained since 2002 about the landfill.
The operators of Warren Hills and the state had been trying to agree on terms and a final closing date of Dec. 31, 2008. In the interim, the landfill would be able to generate enough revenue and enough fill material to close in an orderly manner.
At issue is odor and leachate at the site, dust control and what materials can and will be brought there.
Roth maintained the facility has not complied with deadlines to make progress. Our Lives Count held a news conference Wednesday at the Warren Township administration building to discuss the EPA's action.
State Reps. Randy Law of Warren, R-64th, and Sandra Stabile Harwood of Niles, D-65th; and state Sen. Marc Dann of Liberty, D-32nd, are pushing proposals at the state level to tighten the laws for construction and demolition debris landfills, so problems similar to Warren Hills cannot occur again.
The state filed a lawsuit two years ago against the landfill. That suit remains unresolved. The state in December 2002 told the city health board not to grant a 2003 operating license because the landfill did not substantially comply with Ohio law on construction and demolition debris landfills. The city disregarded that view and issued a 2003 license. That decision was appealed by the state and Warren Township.
The case was settled in 2003, and the state did not object to the 2004 license. However, contempt charges were filed in early 2004, finding the landfill not in substantial compliance.
To keep this scenario from happening again, the landfill withdrew its 2005 application to the city health board for another operating license.