Mark Yinger, a well-respected hydro-geologist who
specializes in landfill hydrology, reported in late December 2017 that leachate is not only leaking from
the oldest, unlined areas of Riverbend Landfill but has already impacted groundwater quality at
two early detection monitoring wells.
Yinger was hired by Stop the Dump Coalition to
analyze the detailed Annual Environmental Monitoring Reports (AEMR) submitted
to the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) by Waste Management, Inc., the dump's Texas-based corporate owner.
Yinger studied groundwater tests from two monitoring wells, MW-5A and MW-12A, the closest down-gradient wells to the oldest unlined areas (cells) of the landfill. Data from these wells indicate that leachate leaking
from soil-lined waste cells has impacted groundwater quality. Moreover, the magnitude of the impact to
groundwater is increasing at an accelerating rate.
An earlier Yinger report analyzed AEMR data through 2014. That report concluded that “From 1992 through 2014, the
concentrations of chlorobenzene and 1,4-dichlorobenzene have not decreased, but
have in fact at times increased…. Landfill gas extraction, which began in 1997,
has not reduced the concentration of chlorobenzene and 1,4-dichlorobenzene in
groundwater at MW-5A.” These chemicals are "leachate indicators." If they are present at the monitoring sites, so is leachate from the dump.
The new report confirms the earlier findings and notes that "concentrations of the leachate indicators...have increased at compliance monitoring well MW-12A, and by 2016 exceeded site specific concentration limits.... The concentrations of the leachate indicators at MW-5A are much higher than the site specific concentration limits established for compliance well MW-12A."
"Site specific concentration limits" are maximums established by law. DEQ is aware
of these exceedences, yet recently permitted Waste Management to pile 500,000 new tons of garbage on top of the
leaking cells.
Yinger’s report corroborates the concerns of citizens and Stop the Dump Coalition that effective cleanup will be impossible once the leaks are buried under
the additional garbage. STDC has called on DEQ to halt the addition of new waste until the violations cited by the Yinger report are addressed.
You can ask DEQ to take action. The state Environmental Quality Commission, which runs DEQ, is meeting January 18 in Portland. Attend or call in (info available from DEQ by January 11) to make your voice heard!
You can ask DEQ to take action. The state Environmental Quality Commission, which runs DEQ, is meeting January 18 in Portland. Attend or call in (info available from DEQ by January 11) to make your voice heard!
Of Course it Leaks! It has from the beginning. I was there when it was "constructed". Cells 1, 2 and 3 had uncompacted bottoms. Garbage was dumped on uncompacted excavation below ground water levels. I measured the well levels that showed that winter ground water went into the cells. The DEQ knew about it, but said that is is okay "if you don't do it again", but is is not okay. Representatives of Waste Management lied about it on a public tour. I asked for a retraction of their statement, but am unaware that they ever did. If you need documentation on all of this, I have it as I was "Engineer of Record" at the time, and resigned because of lack of responsible control.
ReplyDeleteLeonard A. Rydell, PE, PLS, WRE, MASCE