OEPA director nears decision on Countywide - Meeting to help determine if landfill gets license renewed

By ZACH LINT
The Times-Reporter

EAST SPARTA - A meeting and teleconference today among Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials in Columbus and entities involved with monitoring ongoing issues at Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility at East Sparta may help to shape Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski’s recommendation on whether to allow a 2007 operating license for the facility.

The Stark County Board of Health is awaiting Korleski’s decision, expected Wednesday.

On Thursday, EPA spokesman Mike Settles said Korleski remains focused on Countywide but gave no hint as to what his recommendation might be.

“He’s made it clear that open communication is key here at the agency,” Settles said, “and I think he’s already demonstrated that.”

Korleski met Wednesday in Columbus with Tuscarawas County commissioners in a session put together by state Rep. Allan Sayre, D-Dover, to give commissioners an opportunity to air a number of concerns and to explain their side of a fight to have odor problems at the landfill addressed.

Korleski told commissioners that Countywide remains the Ohio EPA’s No. 1 priority and reiterated that he will make a recommendation regarding the landfill’s operating license by the Wednesday deadline.

“I don’t think (Korleski) realized all of the steps that we had to go through,” Commissioner Kerry Metzger said Thursday. “He spoke to that and seemed concerned with the lack of trust we’ve spoken about with the EPA. It looks like he’s taking action to get that corrected.”

Commissioner Chris Abbuhl said commissioners used part of the hour-long meeting to talk about concerns with the amount of waste the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste District takes in from outside the district, but much of meeting was about Countywide.

Odors from Countywide – reportedly caused by a chemical reaction of aluminum dross with moisture and other waste materials – plagued residents of northern Tuscarawas and southern Stark counties for much of 2006.

Residents also are waiting to find out if the landfill is on fire – a question that heated up at the end of January and hasn’t been resolved.

Todd Thalhamer, an expert on underground fires from the California EPA, was called in at the end of January to examine the chemical reaction taking place beneath the landfill and determine if there is a subsurface fire.

A fire would pose more serious health risks than a chemical reaction to residents near the landfill, although the EPA has said that air testing near the landfill has shown no threat to the public’s health.

Thalhamer is to notify Korleski of his findings before Wednesday. Apparently, those findings will be made public along with Korleski’s recommendation.

The landfill, which installed a 30-acre cap to house its gas extrication system and address odor issues, continues to operate on its 2006 permit.

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