Lisbon landfill to pay $4M settlement

March 31, 2010 at 12:03a.m.

By D.A. WILKINSON

LISBON

A&L Salvage Landfill has agreed to more than a $4 million settlement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to correct long-standing problems at its closed landfill.

The owners of A&L Salvage Landfill, 11225 state Route 45, agreed Tuesday to a preliminary injunction that will result in a proper closure of the former construction- and demolition-debris landfill.

The agreement with Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and OEPA director Chris Korleski, will require A&L Salvage to forfeit more than $4 million in financial-assurance bonds so the money may be used to cap the landfill’s 42-acre disposal area.

“We need to get the problem resolved so residents can get back to normal lives,” said Mike Settles, a spokesman for the OEPA.

Ohio EPA’s inspectors said residents living around the landfill recently reported a return of intense hydrogen sulfide odors and short-term health effects including headaches and nausea. The OEPA and the U.S. EPA are continuing to monitor the landfill’s odors and a suspected subsurface fire.

By the end of April, A&L Salvage’s bonding company, Evergreen National Indemnity Corporation, will decide whether it will carry out the closure or whether funds from the bonds will be deposited into the A&L Salvage Trust Fund and used by the OEPA for clean up.

Either way, Settles said, landfill capping is expected to begin as soon as next month and should be completed later this year. Three contractors already have looked at the landfill and submitted bids to carry out the work.

Ali Lehman, a spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General’s office, did not have figures on unpaid costs and unpaid penalties the landfill still owes the state.

A&L Salvage stopped disposing of waste in February 2009, but never capped and closed the facility as required under Ohio law and never complied with previous corrective orders.

A copy of the proposed settlement has been sent to Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge C. Ashley Pike for his review and possible approval.

The settlement will not be final until a permanent injunction is approved.