The St. Clair County Commission, Alabama, has declared a state of emergency to take more aggressive efforts to extinguish an underground fire at the Environmental Landfill near Moody that has been burning for over a month. Commission chairman Stan Batemon said the declaration of a state of emergency gives the county additional legal authority and financial resources to try to put out the fire. Batemon said the county has received estimates that putting the fire out may cost up to $2 million.
The Environmental Landfill Inc., where the fire is located, is a “green waste” landfill that is only supposed to accept green or vegetation waste such as fallen tree limbs, leaves or yard debris. s such, the landfill is not regulated by the state like most landfills. However, inspectors from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and firefighting personnel have reported finding unauthorized waste including scrap tires and appliances at the site.
Local NPR station WBHM reported about the numerous violations the Moody Landfill has received over a five-year time span. According to the outlet, the ADEM found illegal waste such as scrap tires, appliances, shingles and demolition materials at the site in 2017.
Inspectors also discovered large amounts of yard waste and “other unauthorized waste like ‘medical or infectious waste, industrial wastes, or hazardous waste.'” One memo from a decade ago spoke about the potential for fires at the site. Violations were issues in 2013 and 2017.
As a response, the landowner’s family put up signs about the type of waste that is allowed at the landfill and said they had diverted the waste to another site. A recent inspection in 2020 showed that was not the case. Moody Landfill was last inspected in August 2022, and the ADEM once again found construction and demolition waste.
The ADEM announced it was working in conjunction with firefighting personnel including the Moody Fire Department and the Alabama Forestry Commission such as the Alabama Emergency Management Agency and the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency.
Officials likened the underground blaze to the incident in Centralia, Pennsyllvania, a coal town that has largely been abandoned after a fire began in a coal mine in 1962 and continues to burn today. It’s likely that the entire Moody Landfill site will need to be decommissioned.
