Lafarge’s Lordstown Landfill, located in northeast Ohio, is a controversial demolition landfill which has received millions of tons of uninspected out-of-state waste and has caused dust, odor and toxic gas health problems for workers and neighbors, according to Elijah Zander, Citizens Against Lordstown Landfill.
Lafarge, now called Holcim US, is the parent company of the Lordstown Landfill and has been in non-compliance for many years. The Ohio EPA has issued the company multiple Notices of Violation, two consent orders, fines totaling $270,000 and cited over 1,000 consent order violations.
Violations include exceeding the hydrogen sulfide gas limits at residences, accepting illegal pulverized and unrecognizable waste, illegally pumping groundwater, not covering waste, creating nuisances, exceeding engineered design limits and discharging polluted water.
Lafarge’s landfill opened in 2004 but never installed any landfill gas controls until ordered to do so by the Ohio EPA in 2016. But hundreds of citizens’ complaints of odors and sickness continued through 2017, 2018 and 2019. Subsequently, the Ohio EPA issued a second consent order in October 2019.
The long-term effects of chronic exposure to landfill gases such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon disulfide have not been well studied. Decades ago, OSHA established workday maximum exposure limits for hydrogen sulfide relative to immediate paralysis and death but has absolutely zero information on non-life threatening levels of hydrogen sulfide over years of exposure. Thus, the Ohio EPA opines that “there are no harmful effects” from landfill gas.
One mechanism to control gas emissions is to place an impermeable cap over the surface of the landfill. A cap is the barrier which stops precipitation from soaking into the landfill and keeps explosive methane and poisonous sulfide gases from escaping. In Ohio, demolition waste landfills are only required to install an 18 inch soil cap.
State-of-the-art landfill caps, which include thick layers of clay, dense plastic and protective soil, dramatically reduce water infiltration. This also dramatically reduces the formation of toxic gases. Soil-only caps are also subject to erosion, desiccation and chemical attack as well as allowing significant gas leakage.
The soil-only caps used at Lafarge’s Lordstown landfill allow significant infiltration of rainwater. Noticeably, Lafarge pumps 20 million gallons a year of benzene, acetone and ammonia contaminated landfill water to the City of Warren’s undersized wastewater treatment plant. In fact, the total amount of contaminated water from Lafarge has increased from 91 million gallons through 2017 to approximately 200 million gallons through 2022.
The Trumbull County Health Department, which allegedly inspects and annually licenses the landfill, has received nearly $6.5 million from Lafarge in waste fees. Regardless of the millions of dollars in their accounts, the innumerable landfill violations, or hundreds of citizens’ complaints, the Health Department has never denied the landfill’s annual license, or required inspections or sampling of the railed waste, or conducted any health, water quality, air quality, epidemiological or toxicological studies of any kind. While the Health Department has hired significant additional staff, no additional staff has been assigned to the landfill. On the most recent records checked, the average Health Department inspection at the Lordstown Landfill was 30 minutes every 90 days.
Previously, the Ohio EPA ordered Lafarge to install a gas collection system at the Lordstown Landfill by July 2020. While hydrogen sulfide creates rotten-egg odors and nausea at 10 parts per billion, Lafarge gas measurements on the surface of the landfill measured 106,000 parts per billion. Poisonous gas levels just under the surface of the landfill reached an astounding 39,000,000 parts per billion.
One of Lafarge’s Ohio EPA consent orders requires monthly hydrogen sulfide scans across the entire landfill. Disturbingly, Lafarge’s March 2022 toxic gas scan report recorded over 90 percent of the capped areas installed in 2020 and 2021 are leaking hydrogen sulfide up to 20 ppb.
Lafarge was subsequently ordered to install another gas collection system which burned the hydrogen sulfide. The system was finally on line in August 2022. However, Lafarge’s December 2022 toxic gas emissions report includes hydrogen sulfide readings on the landfill in excess of 100 ppb — over 10 times the level needed to create nauseating odors. The new system, which burns hydrogen sulfide but emits sulfur dioxide, has been marginally effective.
Multiple litigations by citizens have been filed against Lafarge including a five-million dollar class action lawsuit in July 2022.
Contributed by: toxictruth@citizensagainstlordstownlandfill.org