"Leachate" -- Problems for Demopolis?

[dave]

The Perry Co landfill has issues with "leachate" : the the lovely liquid that forms at the bottom of landfills. The Perry County landfill is the disposal site for coal ash spilled after an accident at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant. The associated leachate contains mercury, arsenic, cadmium and other contaminants. They have to get it out and dispose of it.

In a recent article, a company in Mobile rejected shipments of the liquid. The interesting part of the article was that Perry Co was also sending the stuff to our sewer system here in Demopolis. According to the article, our municipal sewer system was accepting shipments of the toxic liquid in December, yet had lost it's permit to do so in October. There are the possibility of enforcement actions against Demopolis.

I'm not sure of the money involved, but I would hope there is better ways to generate revenue than this. This poisonous liquid is going into our river. Whats an acceptable level of waste for the waterways we fish and swim in?

Mobile company rejects waste liquids from coal ash landfill | Breaking News from the Press-Register - al.com
MY TURN: Hurricane Creekkeeper in the Tuscaloosa News, Alabama pays price in coal ash cleanup — Alabama Rivers Alliance

[AngelWing]

Originally Posted by dave

This poisonous liquid is going into our river. Whats an acceptable level of waste for the waterways we fish and swim in?

I would only tolerate 0% poisonous levels in our waterways! How can they possibly think doing this will benefit our town?!?! This really should be brought up at a town meeting.

[renegade]

Originally Posted by dave

The Perry Co landfill has issues with "leachate" : the the lovely liquid that forms at the bottom of landfills. The Perry County landfill is the disposal site for coal ash spilled after an accident at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant. The associated leachate contains mercury, arsenic, cadmium and other contaminants. They have to get it out and dispose of it.

In a recent article, a company in Mobile rejected shipments of the liquid. The interesting part of the article was that Perry Co was also sending the stuff to our sewer system here in Demopolis. According to the article, our municipal sewer system was accepting shipments of the toxic liquid in December, yet had lost it's permit to do so in October. There are the possibility of enforcement actions against Demopolis.

I'm not sure of the money involved, but I would hope there is better ways to generate revenue than this. This poisonous liquid is going into our river. Whats an acceptable level of waste for the waterways we fish and swim in?i wonder why they didnt take it to chemwaste in emelle,al...i used to haul leachate water from there to deer park,tx when i worked for suttles truck leasing....

Mobile company rejects waste liquids from coal ash landfill | Breaking News from the Press-Register - al.com
MY TURN: Hurricane Creekkeeper in the Tuscaloosa News, Alabama pays price in coal ash cleanup — Alabama Rivers Alliance

[renegade]

Originally Posted by dave

The Perry Co landfill has issues with "leachate" : the the lovely liquid that forms at the bottom of landfills. The Perry County landfill is the disposal site for coal ash spilled after an accident at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant. The associated leachate contains mercury, arsenic, cadmium and other contaminants. They have to get it out and dispose of it.

In a recent article, a company in Mobile rejected shipments of the liquid. The interesting part of the article was that Perry Co was also sending the stuff to our sewer system here in Demopolis. According to the article, our municipal sewer system was accepting shipments of the toxic liquid in December, yet had lost it's permit to do so in October. There are the possibility of enforcement actions against Demopolis.

I'm not sure of the money involved, but I would hope there is better ways to generate revenue than this. This poisonous liquid is going into our river. Whats an acceptable level of waste for the waterways we fish and swim in?

Mobile company rejects waste liquids from coal ash landfill | Breaking News from the Press-Register - al.com
MY TURN: Hurricane Creekkeeper in the Tuscaloosa News, Alabama pays price in coal ash cleanup — Alabama Rivers Alliance

i wonder why they didnt send it to Chemwaste in emelle,al...i used to haul leachate water from there to deer park,tx when i used to work for Suttles Truck Leasing....

[mmcd3182]

Well this thread is just disgusting. I'll avoid the water next time I'm in town.

[snafu]

It is not the waterway that is the immediate problem, it is the potential contamination of the ground water aquifers that causes the most concern for me. If it gets to the point that it is making it to the waterway, we are so far past screwed it won't matter any more.

I don't see why the didn't send it to Emelle in the beginning.

[Jeff]

It appears from the article that Demopolis was accepting this under a permit (I presume from ADEM). If this is the case then I am sure that there are tight restrictions on the quality of the discharge back into the river, and that this is a heavily recorded and reported value, much like any manufacturing facility that ties to a river. The statement "Demopolis facility "would certainly be opening itself for enforcement actions" if it accepted the waste without an operating permit" goes without saying whether they were accepting this waste water or a ham and cheese sandwich that wasn't sanctioned by ADEM.

Issues like these are often easy to jump on and finger point, but the fact remains that this water will have to be treated and then discharged at some point. You can not stockpile. That being said I would feel more comfortable having a company in a honest county doing it than in a county as corrupt as Perry.

[just me]

Why would Perry County & State of Alabama sell our health & environment for $1.05 per ton of toxic waste ????
Tennessee does not want their waste in their state....Why does Perry County want to bring it here. It travels on our hwys and railways EVERYDAY !! They are Crazy !!

The level of toxic material is so high that Mobile treatment plants refused shipments. But they are dumping it 35 miles from Demopolis for it to leak into our water systems and river systems.
Does Anyone Else have a problem with this ??

[Kagan]

Originally Posted by just me

But they are dumping it 35 miles from Demopolis for it to leak into our water systems and river systems.
Does Anyone Else have a problem with this ??

Linden gets their water from Uniontown.

[just me]

After this Toxic Waste filters into the Water Table.....We will ALL be involved. !!!!!

There are 8 rivers & streams exposed to the Toxic Stuff that take the water downstream to the Gulf of Mexico. Guess what......We live on 2 of the major rivers !

In Perry County they are not "storing" the Waste Product like at Emelle....They are dumping the sludge in the County Landfill. Exposed to the weather and rain for it to drain into the soil & road side ditch. No Protection....No Containment....Just dumped on the garbage heap.

ALABAMA THE BEAUTIFUL ?????

[MSG31U]

Originally Posted by just me

After this Toxic Waste filters into the Water Table.....We will ALL be involved. !!!!!

There are 8 rivers & streams exposed to the Toxic Stuff that take the water downstream to the Gulf of Mexico. Guess what......We live on 2 of the major rivers !

In Perry County they are not "storing" the Waste Product like at Emelle....They are dumping the sludge in the County Landfill. Exposed to the weather and rain for it to drain into the soil & road side ditch. No Protection....No Containment....Just dumped on the garbage heap.

ALABAMA THE BEAUTIFUL ?????

Just follow the money trail.................................

[just me]

Originally Posted by MSG31U

Just follow the money trail.................................

You said it ALL !!!!!!!

[colonelsanders]

The leachate is again going to Demopolis, although ADEM hasn't just come out and said it. The state agency issued a special order a few weeks ago allowing Demopolis to continue operating its wastewater treatment system even though it spent the last three months operating without a permit at all.

This emergency order also allows Demopolis to resume taking leachate from PCA-Arrowhead landfill in Uniontown. There's a pending environmental lawsuit against the city's Water Works & Sewer board right now stemming from this issue.

Montgomery is scrambling to find some place to put the leachate this landfill is generating, because it's waaaaaay more than they'd planned on dealing with. When it was going to Marion's wastewater lagoon, there were about 15-20 trucks a day hauling leachate from the landfill to the treatment pond. Each truck can hold 5,000-9,000 gallons. When the landfill owners set up their arrangement to have Marion process their leachate, I believe I recall they estimated they'd generate about 10,000 gallons a day.

Independent tests (because if ADEM or EPA have conducted any of their own, they're not releasing the data) have shown elevated levels of toxic heavy metals in the creek where Marion's lagoon discharges its treated water, and even in ditches around the landfill property itself. I don't know if anyone has poked around the Demopolis plant, but I bet they'd find similar results.

This stuff is essentially toxic waste -- if anyone said, hey, I've got 2,000 tons of pure arsenic to get rid of, EPA would send them to the most secure hazardous waste treatment facility they could find. If that arsenic is contained in a few million tons of coal ash, though, we can put it in a household waste landfill and treat the leachate it generates in a municipal sewage lagoon. Madness.

[dave]

The accident that caused all this is in Tennessee though, correct? Why does Uniontown, or Perry Co even need to continue accepting it? We're causing ourselves this problem by solving another state's problem IMO.

[dave]

Coincidentally, cancer rates in Alabama are higher than the mean average for the United States. In Marengo and Perry Co, rates are on a rising trend (years 2002 - 2006).

How do we know everything is safe here? Whats the best way to avoid catching a disease--don't get exposed to it. Surely accepting this toxic waste into our city isn't the cost of doing business here.