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Girard sues company for practices at dump
Girard
Hoping to stem a potential environmental nuisance, the city’s Department of Health filed suit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court against Total Waste Logistics for not properly disposing of leachate at its south-side dump.
The suit, filed Wednesday, against the Canfield-based company claims the company at its now-closed dump failed “to operate and maintain its leachate- collection system and ... failed to minimize the generation of leachate.”
James Dobson, director of the Department of Health, said leachate forms when rainwater flows through the debris in the dump. Along the way, it picks up chemicals and other substances that if not removed could end up in water systems, Dobson said.
To prevent unused dumps from continually producing the runoff, companies must cap them with clay and topsoil.
The dump, at 1025 Bundy Road, stopped taking in debris in September and was not capped before winter, Dobson said.
He said after that, the owners had the electricity to the dump shut off, which also turned off the pumps that collect the leachate and pump it into holding tanks.
After threatening to sue the company then, he said TWL turned on the electricity, which filled the leachate holding tanks.
He said it seemed the last time they disposed of the leachate was in December.
Meanwhile, he said, the tanks at the dump that hold the leachate before being shipped to a sewage- treatment plant are all filled.
If the court sides with the city, it could force TWL to pay up to $10,000 per day of each violation, Girard Law Director Brian Kren said.
The Vindicator was unable to reach TWL to comment Friday, but Dobson said he spoke with the owner of TWL who said he would begin shipping the leachate to the sewage-treatment plant Monday and cap the dump this summer.
“I’m not doing anything until it’s all done,” Dobson said when asked if he planned to drop the suit if TWL complied. TWL “can answer to the judge.”
The lawsuit comes after a six-year legal battle between Girard and TWL over another proposed landfill on the north side ended last summer with the waste company withdrawing its application.