Inspector: Landfill stinks

But the operator, which wants to expand, says the report doesn't show any violations.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP, Times Staff Writer
Published October 23, 2007

DADE CITY - A state inspection last week found a string of problems at a Dade City landfill operated by Angelo's Aggregate Materials, including "excessive amounts" of unauthorized waste, odor levels that reach beyond what they're supposed to, and allegations that the company hasn't "substantially followed" its permitted operational plan.

Landfill opponents say the inspection results for the "Class 3" landfill at Enterprise and Auton roads are damning evidence that Angelo's isn't equipped to handle a larger "Class 1" landfill that the company wants to build in the same neighborhood. A Class 1 landfill would handle potentially more poisonous waste than a "Class 3" facility.

Angelo's officials say the state Department of Environmental Protection's Oct. 15 findings are preliminary, and that these problems are typical of all landfills.

"Every inspection has things that they write about," said John Arnold, the company's project manager. "It's not an indication that we're bad."

State officials won't say how typical these problems are, but they are firm that they would prefer no infractions at all.

"By the nature of having a permit, DEP expects the permittee to meet the criteria of the permit," said department spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez. "We have violations at this time, and they must be addressed immediately."

Officials who conducted the inspection weren't available for comment, Vazquez said. She said Angelo's has seven days to respond to the department's allegations, and the department expects an answer this week.

The inspection is part of a thrice-a-year check that state officials conduct.

In her report, inspector Melissa Madden noted what she observed. Among other items:

"Unacceptable waste was observed ... including excessive amounts of household Class 1 garbage, toys, comforter/sheets, clothing, shoes, food containers/bottles and 1 Igloo cooler. One whole tire was seen in cell 4 through the cover."

The cover on a landfill was "poor," she observed. She saw unacceptable erosion and cells not filled according to the permitted sequence. Dump loads weren't being sorted before they were mixed together and compacted. Dumps were quickly moved "to accommodate more room for trucks to dump," she noted.

"Exposed waste (including one tire, shoes, mattresses) was observed," she wrote. "Strong gas odors were observed in this area. Offsite odors were observed at southern boundary at 8:51 a.m."

As a result, the three-member state team gave "Not OK" findings on key questions of the report, including: "Is the operation plan substantially followed?"; "Are only permitted waste types disposed at facility?"; and "Are all specific conditions in the permit being followed?"

Landfill opponents say the report confirms their suspicions of Angelo's abilities to handle waste.

"It's much less rigorous to operate a Class 3 than a Class 1," said Carl Roth, spokesman for Protectors of Florida's Legacy. "If there's illegal materials in their Class 3, should we anticipate illegal materials in their Class 1? If that's what DEP saw, what else didn't they see? What else is buried there?"

"The infractions essentially support everything we've been saying all along," he said.

But the company downplayed the state findings.

"They have mischaracterized these things as infractions," Arnold said. "We don't have any violations. They're not saying we violated anything."

Angelo's pulls out "container-loads of tires" from the dump every day, Arnold said. Some are missed. "On any given day, you can find maybe one tire in there," he said.

He said the landfill's gas monitoring system never picked up odor issues.

"We don't believe there were any odors," he said. "It could have come from an adjacent chicken farm."

On cells being filled out of sequence, he said Angelo's thought it had "verbal authorization" from the department allowing them to reroute a truck path over one cell in order to get to another.

"We're getting clarification now from DEP," he said. "They're just being very strict - and they should be."

Angelo's has been fined before for infractions at the same landfill: $1,250 in 2004 and $3,500 in 2006. At a Largo site, the company was fined $23,500 in 2004 and $7,650 in 2000. Among other violations, DEP officials found that Angelo's failed to maintain its leachate collection system and had a clogged and overgrown stormwater system.

A county official who used to direct utilities operations, Bob Tietz, told the Pasco Times in January that such infractions were "housekeeping" in nature.

State officials say they are still going through the reporting process.

"This isn't over," Vazquez said. "We haven't decided whether we issue a warning letter or how else we're going to move forward."

Chuin-Wei Yap can be reached at (813)909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 23, 2007, 06:35:25]