Landfill moratorium passes amid potential coal ash dumping

Landfill moratorium passes amid potential coal ash dumping

By Deborah Nelson
December 11, 2010

Santa Rosa Commissioners, Thursday, passed a moratorium on new construction and demolition (C&D) landfill permitting after two residents asked that county ordinances be updated to address future dump operators’ financial solvency issues.

Currently, C&D owners are not required by Santa Rosa County to ensure they have enough money to close the facilities out when dumps are full.

Officials say they’ll work on changing County ordinance to require adequate financial assurance for closure before permitting future C&D facilities. They also discussed reevaluating current dump distance standards from public wells, but did not specify any potential changes to those setbacks.

Citing leaky liners, Navarre resident Etta Lawlor urged Commissioners to increase minimum distance setbacks.

“We have a lot of community water wells that supply residents, and when you think of a thousand feet, that’s like two-and-a-half; two-and-three-quarters football fields,” Lawlor remarked. “So at four feet per day, in less than a year’s time…contaminants could be in that well.”

East Milton resident Wallis Mahute, who along with Lawlor recommended the moratorium, warned officials about recent local interest in using C&D facilities to dispose of incoming coal ash.

Coal ash toxins include arsenic, lead and mercury.

“I want you to be aware that we do have a situation that is new, where a landfill is wanting to switch from a C&D facility to a coal ash facility,” Mahute noted.

Correspondence between K.W. Cargill, PA and DEP, dated 11 February of this year, shows Bluewater Holding asked DEP to modify their East Milton C&D permit to allow for coal ash disposal.

“Forwarded herewith is a study report that was prepared to evaluate the suitability of a geomembrane liner system for the disposal of coal ash instead of the C&D waste for which the facility was originally designed,” the letter reads.

“…If the results of this study are accepted by FDEP, Bluewater Holding SRC intends to submit an application to the Northwest District [of DEP] for modification of the existing permit…to allow use of the disposal facility as an ash monofill.”

That modification does not appear to have been permitted, to date. Permit modification information had still not been submitted by Bluewater to DEP, as of August 2010, according to DEP records.

A November 9 follow up letter from JHM Engineers, Inc. to DEP requests a deferral for the dump’s next Financial Assurance Cost Estimate filing because the landfill is not currently operational.

“East Milton C&D Disposal Facility received the Department permit on January 11, 2008 and due to the economy has not been constructed or received any solid waste,” the letter notes.

The company would need to file funding information 60 days prior to accepting future C&D debris for disposal.

Commissioner Jim Melvin suggested C&D pits should be County operated, as Class A household garbage dumps are.

“If an operator runs into financial problems and fails to pay his bond, then our surety goes away,” he pointed out.

“And unless we want to ask for a $5 or a $6 million dollar cash bond or whatever someone tells us it costs to close a pit, we might prefer to consider that this just becomes a county governmental function.