Ohio is, as of February 2011, home to 55 Construction and Demolition Debris, or C&DD, landfills, and resident groups all across Ohio question their safety.
If you saw the Julia Roberts movie, Erin Brockovich, you might remember a scene where one of the lawyers for a company that contaminated the water in a small community was about to take a drink of water. Then, as she raised the glass to her lips, Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich told the lawyer the water was brought in from a well located in the community in question. The lawyer put the glass down pretty quickly.
If someone handed you a cocktail of water, asbestos, arsenic, and a laundry list of other heavy toxic metals, would you want to drink it? Like the lawyer in the movie, you would most likely put it down pretty quickly. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) has already tested water in sediment ponds in 30 of Ohio's existing C&DD landfills, and has, according to its reports, found toxic leachate in all of them.
A simple crack or failure of a clay liner in a C&DD waste containment or sediment pond could make drinking that toxic cocktail a reality for residents living in parts of central Ohio, including Morrow County, with a direct connection to the Olentangy Watershed, which serves more than 250,000 citizens. An even larger problem results from the fact that sediment pond liners are not currently required by Ohio law for C&DD landfills.
C&DD Landfill Design
According to the Ohio State University Extension Office, Construction and Demolition Debris landfills use a single liner system because it is less expensive to build and maintain than the liners used in other types of landfills. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency lists 55 existing Ohio C&DD landfills across the state's 88 counties. Most of the listed facilities are not located on one of Ohio's major watersheds.
While sediment ponds, or containment pools, built on wetlands typically require a more secure containment structure, one such C&DD landfill is currently (as of 2011) in the process of being built on a Morrow County, Ohio wetland that is part of the Olentangy watershed. Concerned residents of the county unsuccessfully petitioned the EPA to halt development of the facility, citing concerns over reduced air and water quality.
Leachate from C&DD Waste
This potentially can develop into a form of non-point source pollution for Morrow County residents with the potential to affect residents as far away as Columbus, Ohio. Is there anything that says the liner will crack, if one is built at all? No. Is there anything that proves it will not crack? No. In fact, single liners have been known to crack and pollute groundwater, making it all the more inexplicable that local governments require no liner whatsoever when effective liner systems, such as composite liners, are available.
While this presents an environmental issue, it is also a case study of a business ethics problem. Laws are often enacted too late when businesses fail to operate in ways that protect stakeholders. Water polluted with toxic substances can be the result in situations where no liner systems or inadequate liner systems are used to prevent leachate from seeping into surrounding groundwater.
Concerned Ohio residents have the right to ask the EPA to protect them from toxic drinking water, and they also have an opportunity to speak out on on the issue.
Copyright Laure Justice. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication. Originally published on Suite101.
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