EPA seeks residents’ feedback on grants
The Akron Beacon Journal
COLUMBUS - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will accept comments through Saturday on a fund established in connection with fires and odors at a southern Stark County landfill.
Residents near the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township can submit their comments on criteria the agency should consider in awarding grants from the $250,000 Community Benefit Project Fund.
Republic Waste Services, the company that owns and operates the 258-acre landfill, was ordered in a March 28 agreement with the EPA to pay a $1 million fine, of which $250,000 would benefit communities in southern Stark and northern Tuscarawas counties.
Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski said criteria should be based on common sense and should be kept as simple as possible. Funding one or more projects that benefit the largest number of people within the affected area is his priority.
Comments should be e-mailed to: communityfund@epa.state.oh.us or faxed to 614-644-2737.
They also may be mailed to: Ohio EPA. P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, OH 43216.
The EPA intends to finalize the criteria. Results will be posted at www.epa.state.oh.us/pic/countywide.html. Local groups then will have 30 days to apply for grants.
Those proposals will be posted for a second 30 days so community members can provide comments.
For questions, contact EPA staffer Mary McCarron at 614-644-2160.
The EPA is reviewing three plans that Republic Waste Services submitted to deal with the fires and odors.
The company, in a May 29 report, said it might take three to six years to extinguish the underground fires on an 88-acre portion of the landfill. It said the best remedy is to add synthetic liners over the top of the affected area to keep out oxygen and liquids. It rejected proposals to inject chemicals into the landfill or to dig up the waste.
The company must also prove to the EPA that the landfill's synthetic liner and its gas-collection system are intact and have not been damaged by high temperatures.
Neighbors of the landfill are troubled by the possibility that a final remedy could be six years away and want the EPA to order a quicker solution. The decision about what remedy will be ordered rests with Korleski.
The problems were triggered by aluminum wastes that were buried in the landfill coming into contact with liquid runoff, the EPA said.
The company is implementing a number of interim steps required under EPA orders to reduce odors.
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