Hardy Road Landfill to close this weekend

Eco-group to celebrate with rally at Akron dump

Beacon Journal | 06/29/2002 | Posted on Sat, Jun. 29, 2002
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer

    Folks living in North Akron and Cuyahoga Falls are celebrating.
That's because the city of Akron's Hardy Road Landfill on Friday took in its
last trash. It officially closes on Sunday.
    ``We're very satisfied,'' said Terry Mader, spokesman for the Committee
Opposed to Ruining the Environment, the 500-member grass-roots group that
battled Akron and Waste Management of Ohio over expanding the landfill.
His group will hold a public rally with coffee and doughnuts from 7 to 9
p.m. Monday outside the landfill along Akron-Peninsula Road.
    ``We're looking forward with excitement to the old landfill closing,'' he
said. ``We're not out to rub anyone's nose in it -- just to celebrate....
It's been a long fight.'' He added, ``We want to acknowledge the closure, but we want to let Akron and Waste Management know that we're still watching.''
    The city and the company that operates the 103-acre landfill have appealed
the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's 2001 rejection of their expansion
plans. They want to expand to build a new 106-acre landfill on acreage east
of the existing landfill. The EPA said no because of environmental problems.
That appeal is pending before an EPA hearing officer.
    But the old landfill remains under a 2001 consent decree between Akron and
the state to close the landfill by Sunday night. That agreement came after
the city was cited by the EPA for numerous environmental violations.
The old landfill has been getting about 2,100 tons of trash per day: 800 to
900 tons from the Akron area and 1,200 tons from the Cleveland area, said
company spokeswoman Kathy Trent.
    That waste will go instead to Waste Management's American Landfill near
Waynesburg in southeast Stark County, she said.
    Akron will pay an additional $9 a ton or $1.8 million a year to ship its tra
sh to Stark County, according to Akron Service Director Joe Kidder.
The city hopes that new cost-cutting measures will offset that and a hike in
garbage fees won't be necessary, he said. But he said Akron residents could
face higher fees if the cost-cutting efforts fail.
    The Cleveland trash had been temporarily shipped to Hardy Road Landfill to
help fill up the last landfill cell before Sunday's deadline.
The Akron waste going to Stark County will be shipped through Waste
Management's transfer station off Fountain Street in East Akron.
The waste will be dumped there and transferred to larger trucks for shipment
to American Landfill, an operation that has come under fire from neighbors.
Under a separate court settlement, Akron and Waste Management will keep that
transfer station -- itself controversial -- open for three years. They will
build a new one elsewhere to replace it.
    But Akron and Waste Management are not walking away from the old dump. They
are responsible for its care until 2035.
    ``We're not going away,'' Trent said. ``We have to take care of the site and
that's what we're going to do.''
    The company's original plan for taking care of the old landfill was approved
by the state. The plan was then revised and the state said it was deficient
and needed more work. A revised plan is to be submitted to the EPA by
Wednesday.
    The post-closure care of the landfill is expected to cost Waste Management
about $14.3 million, Trent said.
First, Waste Management must cap the old landfill, a process that won't be
complete until 2005.
    At that time, the clock starts running and Waste Management must maintain
the old landfill for 30 years, said EPA spokesman JohnSchmidt.
Requirements include groundwater and methane-gas monitoring. The Ohio EPA
will inspect four times a year.
    The company in 2001 took the first steps toward closing the old landfill.
One 20-acre tract was topped with a clay-and-dirt-and-synthetic cap -- it is
more than 3 ½ feet thick -- and reseeded with grass. The rest of the
landfill will get a clay-dirt cap, also more than 3 ½ feet thick.
The special clay being used swells when it gets wet -- like a self-sealing
tire -- and that should keep rain and snow out of the trash, Schmidt said.
Waste Management has no alternative plans for the old landfill, although
some dumps have been turned into parks and golf courses, Trent said.
Any decision would rest with Akron, not Waste Management, because the city
still owns the land, she said.
    Akron has not announced any alternative plans for the old landfill.

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com