By Rachel Goff
Last summer, the state shut down Moretown Landfill, Inc. (MLI), and now it's looking to sue the Route 2 facility.
In July of 2013, Moretown Landfill, Inc. was ordered to cease operations after two of its trash cells did not meet Vermont Agency of Natural Resources' (ANR) recertification standards. In closing, the facility began a 30-year process of capping and monitoring its trash cells, but last Thursday, November 6, Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, on behalf of the ANR, filed a 16-count complaint seeking civil penalties against Moretown Landfill for alleged violations of state solid waste management certifications, air and water pollution control regulations, land use permits and stormwater construction permits both before and after its closure.
The basis for the state's complaint comes from monitoring reports that Moretown Landfill submitted to ANR containing data from the fall of 2007 to the summer of 2014 that demonstrate the facility's failure to maintain an effective gas collection system, monitor leachate, control temperatures and oxygen levels, conduct random load inspections and prevent nuisance odors, among other state-mandated duties.
"The Attorney General's office takes cases like these very seriously," Sorrell said in a statement last week, "and [it] will continue to be vigilant and work with the [ANR] to ensure that Vermont's waste-disposal sector plays by the rules, protects Vermont's environment and takes appropriate action to prevent offsite odors."
Moretown Landfill appealed the ANR's decision not to recertify Cell 2 and Cell 3 in April of 2013, arguing that it had invested over a million dollars in facility upgrades since submitting its recertification application. The state's complaint acknowledged those upgrades but used data to show they were not enough to bring the facility into compliance with the law.
According to Vermont Solid Waste Management Regulations, landfill gas collection wells must be monitored to ensure low liquid levels. "Despite providing prior assurances to ANR that it was adequately addressing [its] water [and] leachate accumulation issue," the court document states, "a review of gas collection wells performed by an MLI contractor in January 2013 found liquid accumulated in numerous collection wells ranging up to 65 percent of total well depth ... [which was] likely negatively impacting the ability of the gas collection system to operate effectively. The contractor recommended the installation of numerous water pumps and the replacement of certain wells."
Per the contractor's recommendations, Moretown Landfill invested in new equipment, installing dewatering pumps and replacing ineffective gas wells, the complaint states. According to the complaint, however, a January 2013 review of the gas collection system indicated that Moretown Landfill "wrongly installed solid pipe, instead of perforated pipe, in the gas collection wells when it increased the vertical height of existing collection wells to account for disposal of waste at higher landfill elevations. Perforated pipe is appropriate because it allows for the drawing of landfill gas into the collection well."
As a result of the ineffective gas collection system, the reports show that between November of 2007 and July of 2014, Moretown Landfill had "on a continuing basis" methane emissions above the 50 ppm threshold for triggering investigation and corrective action, the complaint states, and from January 2012 to August 2014, the facility had 374 separate exceedances of the 50 ppm methane threshold.
In addition to its ineffective gas collection systems—and partially as a result of—the state also confirmed over 100 complaints of offsite odors associated with Moretown Landfill since 2001 and attributed a few of the reasons for those odors, including the facility's mishandling of incoming bio solids.
According to the complaint, in March of 2012 an ANR employee observed that bio solids—"which exacerbate odors in a number of ways"—"were being stored in roll-offs and unloaded at locations other than the working face and were not immediately disposed of at the working face and covered." And again, in April of 2012, an ANR employee observed "a large pile of bio solids [that] had been dumped and left unattended on pavement near the top of the Cell 2 access road.
Moretown Landfill also failed to control less hazardous debris, as the court document states that ANR employees "observed excessive litter at the Moretown Landfill on numerous occasions," including litter "that had escaped from Cell 3 and blown approximately 1,000 feet before going through an unmaintained litter fence and spreading throughout the woods south of Cell 2; litter on and along Cell 3; litter collected along litter fences, the magnitude of which indicates it accumulated over a lengthy period of time; litter on landfill side slopes and in eroded channels; and litter in storm water conveyances and a storm water pond."
In its complaint the state also detailed a number of instances in which ANR employees observed water that had come in contact with waste running into a stormwater ditch at the base of Moretown Landfill's trash cells, as well as indicated that depth of the leachate on the facility's trash cell liners exceeded the maximum 12 inches, "thereby increasing potential impacts to soil and groundwater."
And lastly, the complaint states that in reviewing Moretown Landfill's load inspection forms, the state found that the facility "was singling out certain haulers for inspection and was not selecting for inspection at random the minimum three loads per week," the complaint states, which is in violation of the facility's land use permit.
In filing the complaint, Sorrell requests on behalf of the state that the Vermont Superior Court's Environmental Division adjudge Moretown Landfill liable for each of the alleged violations it lists, order the facility to pay civil penalties as well as reimburse the state for the cost of enforcement and order "such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper," the court document read.
Prior to receiving the complaint, Moretown Landfill submitted an application to the ANR in November of 2013 to construct a fourth trash cell that would allow the facility to re-open. Moving forward, MLI's application will be considered independently of its previous requests for certifications, although the facility's compliance history will be taken into consideration.
In January of 2014, the state notified Moretown Landfill that its Cell 4 application was technically incomplete. According to ANR Solid Waste Management Program director Ben Gauthier, Moretown Landfill's application for Cell 4—which would double the size of the facility and extend its life by 12 to 16 years—still lacks a complete groundwater corrective action plan (CAP). The CAP that the landfill most recently submitted had "data gaps that they could only fill through additional sampling," he said, and "that data is necessary to finalizing the treatment design."
Once the data gaps are filled and the CAP is complete, however, Moretown Landfill's application "may require multiple rounds of review and response" between the ANR and the facility, Gauthier explained. "It is impossible to estimate a timeframe" for when the permit will be approved or denied, he said.
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