No landfill permit possible without regional approval
No permit applications for a landfill in Marion County will be accepted by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment without approval of the Central Kansas Regional Solid Waste Authority.
That was the word Feb. 5 from KDHE officials at a public meeting in Marion. More than 100 attended.
"The city cannot do something without the approval of the regional solid waste authority," said Paul Graves, chief of the solid waste landfill unit.
Graves said KDHE would not act on an application until there is local approval, "and part of that is the solid waste plan."
The solid waste plan does not identify a local landfill as a disposal option, preferring transfer stations within the four-county area.
The plan is undergoing a five-year review. Any changes must be recommended by the regional board and approved by each of the four counties.
City officials have called for a non-binding advisory election of Marion residents on March 5 to help determine if a landfill just north of U.S.-56 should be pursued.
Graves and Dennis Degner, chief of solid waste permits, didn't speak for or against any landfill proposal in Marion County. They emphasized several times that KDHE has not received an application for a landfill in Marion County, and that they could not offer site-specific recommendations without extensive study. Each site is unique, they said.
Kansas receives about 3.175 million tons of municipal solid waste annually, out of about 5.69 million tons total. The remaining two million tons includes construction waste and other specialized categories.
Special requirements
There are 18 "Subtitle D" landfills in Kansas, several of them large regional sites. Subtitle D refers to the government regulations, established in 1993, that require clay and plastic liners, leachate (fluid) collection systems, and monitoring wells. Large landfills must meet the minimum requirements of Subtitle D to be built.
Most counties in western Kansas have small local landfills that do not have to meet such stringent requirements, due to low volumes of waste and limited rainfall.
Subtitle D landfills require at least two feet of packed clay plus a plastic liner as a base.
The leachate collection system consists of gravel and perforated pipes to provide liquids a path of least resistance to a sump, where it is pumped out and trucked to a municipal water treatment plant.
Other pipes provide venting for any gas created, usually methane. Some sites use or sell the gas as fuel.
When a cell is completed, it is capped with more clay and plastic. Rainwater drains from the landfill without entering the waste area.
Groundwater monitoring wells are spaced around the site and tested at least four times a year. If a contaminant is detected, the water is pumped and treated, and monitoring increases.
Daily operations include daily cover with six inches of soil, drainage for rain water, litter control, fences, and random screenings to keep out bulk liquids or hazardous wastes.
Random screenings may be as few as one truck per day. The theory is that since no hauler knows when a load will be inspected, illegal materials will not be trucked in, Graves said.
Post-closure costs
Costs are borne by the landfill owners. They must have enough money or credit to cover all projected monitoring and cleanup costs for at least 30 years after the site is closed.
If monitoring shows a need to continue — for example, if methane levels don't decrease significantly — post-closure requirements can be extended another 30 years.
A new form of technology is the "bio-reactor," in which moisture, oxygen, and bacteria are introduced into the landfill, Graves said. The bacteria breaks even dangerous materials into inert components. It shows some promise for providing more methane for use and reducing potential contamination of groundwater.
Landfills owned by cities or counties must provide a financial analysis that shows the tax base is adequate to pay post-closure costs. Privately owned landfills must have bonds, letters of credit, or insurance policies.
"The costs can run into the hundreds of thousand and millions of dollars," Graves said. KDHE can use these funds for monitoring and cleanup operations if needed.
These figures are reviewed annually and adjusted as needed. KDHE also checks the stability of the company providing the financial assurance to the landfill owners. Degner said the state had issued warnings "three or four times in the past year" to companies regarding their choice of bonding.
Some states have found problems with financial assurance operations. An insurance company, for example, might go to court rather than pay. KDHE is seeking to strengthen its requirements through legislation.
"It's a very serious issue," Degner said.
Review process
If a site receives local approval through the solid waste plan and is consistent with zoning, KDHE begins its review of the application.
The landfill owners must conduct an extensive hydrogeologic study of the groundwater and soil at the proposed site. This study, along with site design and all other technical aspects, are reviewed by KDHE.
After the state has its questions answered satisfactorily, it will publish an "intent to issue permit" announcement and accept all comments. If they see a need, the state will hold a public hearing.
All comments are reviewed. If those questions are answered to the state's satisfaction, KDHE formally decides to issue the permit.
Since most companies do preliminary studies, sites that are "obviously inappropriate" usually don't make it to the application process, the engineers said.
Inspections
KDHE engineers will inspect a landfill two times a year or when a complaint is filed. Enforcement actions include fines, orders for more stringent monitoring, or ultimately revocation of the permit. In that case, the landfill is either sold to a new operator or closed.
KDHE has six regional offices with one or two inspectors per office.
"We're doing high quality inspections, but we're not there as often as we should be," Degner said. Therefore, he recommended a host city or county build in weekly inspections as part of their host fee.
"If there ever is a regional landfill situation, I think you should have your own inspectors there very frequently," he said.
Questions
Several audience members asked questions about the safety of landfills. Degner and Graves would not offer guarantees that a landfill site would never become contaminated, though they felt the regulations were sufficient to control solid waste and prevent pollution.
"We have the groundwater monitoring wells there for a reason," Graves said.
Other questions were raised about KDHE's past handing of issues, at other landfills and groundwater pollution in Wichita. Most of those asking questions were frustrated with the apparent lack of results of KDHE's enforcement efforts.
Graves and Degner said they couldn't give specifics about the particular cases.
The political aspects of KDHE was also questioned, and whether the agency would attempt to change regulations to satisfy powerful legislators who control the money.
Graves and Degner said they felt the agency did its best to solve solid waste issues in Kansas. They agreed that some KDHE engineers either have been employed by landfill operators or left the agency and became consultants to landfill operators.
However, they said engineers are bound by ethics. Anyone who believes an engineer is behaving unethically should contact the Kansas State Board of Technical Professions, they said.
KDHE receives $1 per ton tipping fee from each landfill and transfer station. Most of this is used for salaries and grants for county and regional solid waste plans.
Post-closure use of landfills generally are for parks or returned to natural settings, though golf courses have been developed successfully as well. In Kansas, the property must include a restrictive covenant that explains the landfill's use after closure.
The engineers said landfills don't make good building sites because methane seeping out of the landfill can encounter a flame and ignite. There have been cases were structures near landfills were blown up by seeping methane.
Active quarries can be used successfully as landfills, the engineers said. Quarrying operations, including use of explosives, have not posed any problems in landfill construction or closing.
KDHE encourages recycling and material recovery but there is no state law requiring it due to the fluctuating economy.
"Some states tell us they are recycling such-and-such, but to be honest, I think they're lying," Degner said. "It's hard to say it's always going to work, because it isn't always going to work."
In Kansas, anyone who generates more than 25 kilograms of hazardous waste per month must find a disposal source other than municipal solid waste landfills. However, smaller amounts and household hazardous waste can be thrown away.
The engineers strongly encouraged those present to encourage use of a household hazardous waste facility, such as the one in Marion, to reduce those wastes entering a landfill.
