Lafarge Holcim’s Landfill Pours Out Toxic Gases on Neighbors
List of the toxic gases found at Lafarge Holcim's Lordstown, Ohio landfill. Dozens of neighbors have been sickened and at least two people have been hospitalized. Lafarge has exceeded its consent order limit of 20 ppb H2s over 1,000 times.
A "Scab" is where concentrated toxic landfill gas has denatured and destroyed cover soil and clay cap material. The gas pours out in high levels at these locations
Lordstown Landfill's 2022 report shows more than 90% of capped areas are emitting toxic gases. Blue shaded areas are capped. Green and yellow dots are emission points.
Money Flows In while Toxic Gases and Contaminated Water Gush Out
A few X-rays on any given day would not typically be a concern, but several X-rays every day of your life would have quite a different impact. This is analogous to what one endures with landfill gas.”
YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, US, January 3, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- 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.— Webmaster for citizensagainstlordstownlandfill.org
Lafarge, now called Holcim US, is the parent company of the Lordstown Landfill and has been in constant non-compliance for many years. The Ohio EPA has issued the company at least 42 Notices of Violation, two consent orders, fines totaling $270,000 and cited over 1,000 consent order violations.
Violations include: grossly exceeding the toxic 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.
Unfortunately, the Ohio EPA has not performed any environmental studies or local health surveys, nor does it appear that they have asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assist. But disturbingly, the Ohio EPA often publicly states that hydrogen sulfide and the other toxic sulfide gases are "not at harmful levels".
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.
The webmaster for citizensagainstlordstownlandfill.org retorts: "A few X-rays on any given day would not typically be a medical concern, but several X-rays every day of your life would have quite a different impact. This is analogous to what workers and neighbors endure with landfill gas. Like cigarettes, there is no 'safe' level of poisonous landfill gas".
Regrettably, an Ohio EPA inspector was hospitalized in 2017, and a Lafarge employee was hospitalized in 2019, after both were exposed to gases at Holcim's Lordstown Landfill.
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 gallonage of contaminated water from Lafarge has increased from 91 million gallons through 2017 to approximately 200 million gallons through 2022.
MONEY POURS IN, TOXIC GASES POUR OUT.
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 feckless 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.
Lafarge’s landfill was never licensed by the Trumbull County Health Department to accept waste in 2022 but it has operated with impunity throughout the past year; the same appears true for 2023. It is unclear why the Trumbull County Health Department is allowed to continue receive millions in waste revenues, but endlessly dallies and dodges responsibility, while the Ohio EPA maintains the entire enforcement program.
Previously, the Ohio EPA ordered Lafarge to install a gas collection system at the Lordstown Landfill by July 2020. The penny-pinched system was an abject failure and actually increased the landfill gas problems. 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% 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 ten times the level needed to create nauseating odors. The new system, which burns hydrogen sulfide but emits the acid-rain-producing greenhouse gas sulfur dioxide, has obviously been marginally effective.
Ironically, Lafarge now emits even more noxious gases than before. Now poisonous, putrid hydrogen sulfide and carbon disulfide as well as toxic, climate-destroying sulfur dioxide spew into the atmosphere and neighborhoods around the clock.
Multiple litigations by citizens have been filed against Lafarge including a five-million-dollar class action lawsuit in July 2022.
In the meantime, un-inspected, untested railed wastes, from states located 500 miles away, arrive daily and are hastily buried at Lafarge's landfill.
Elijah Zander
Citizens Against Lordstown Landfill
toxictruth@citizensagainstlordstownlandfill.org
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