EPAs don't see dross in landfill as hazardous
BY Robert Wang
The Canton Repository
PIKE TWP - The U.S. Department of Transportation says it’s hazardous.
In Wabash, Ind., it’s suspected of causing a fire last year in at least one, if not two, landfills.
And south of Uhrichsville, in Tuscarawas County, it produced ammonia gas and contaminated a wetland. Later, nearly a million tons of it were trucked to Stark County and buried at Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township.
So why don’t the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. EPA list aluminum dross as a hazardous waste? And why isn’t it restricted from solid waste landfills?
LEGALLY NOT HAZARDOUS
Ohio EPA staffer Jeff Mayhugh wrote that state code prohibits his agency from listing a material as hazardous unless the U.S. EPA does so.
U.S. EPA spokeswoman Roxanne Smith wrote that “the universe of aluminum dross waste is too diverse to make a general determination whether all aluminum dross is or is not a characteristic hazardous waste.”
Federal regulations say any one of four things makes a substance hazardous:
- It ignites
- It can corrode a metal container
- It reacts to the point of causing “explosions, toxic fumes, gases or vapors when heated, compressed, or mixed with water”
- It’s toxic, which is “harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed”
Ohio EPA officials believe liquid waste mixed with the dross at Countywide and set off two underground fires in late 2005, raising the levels of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and other gases. They’re recommending Countywide lose its operating license unless it addresses the problems.
Still, Mayhugh wrote, to be considered hazardous, a substance must give off enough toxic gases to pose a danger to human health or the environment. The agency doesn’t believe that has happened with aluminum waste. And, generally, dross “doesn’t catch fire as much as it smokes or releases gas or fumes when reacted with water.”
WHO DECIDES?
By law, said Ramon Mendoza, a U.S. EPA environment engineer, waste generators determine if their waste is hazardous, testing for any of the four characteristics. The test results usually are not checked by regulators unless a problem is brought to their attention.
If waste is determined to be hazardous, companies have to spend more to send it to a hazardous waste landfill.
More than 25 years ago, regulators tried to designate aluminum dross as hazardous — and it involved the company that generated the aluminum waste that’s now at Countywide.
From 1978 to 1980, Barmet Aluminum dumped more than 250,000 tons of aluminum dross from its Livia, Ky., aluminum recycling facility at a landfill near Island, Ky., the U.S. EPA says. After residents complained about odors from the landfill, the U.S. EPA advised Kentucky to treat the waste as a hazard because of its reactivity.
Barmet sued in federal court. A judge ruled in 1981 that the law didn’t allow dross to be considered hazardous.
At Barmet’s aluminum recycling plant south of Uhrichsville, piles of aluminum dross covered 4 1/2 acres and towered over Barmet buildings in the 1980s. From the plant manager’s office, “the view immediately out of his window was the side of the gray waste pile,” said Ohio EPA supervisor Steve Rine.
“This was one of the worst sites I’ve seen in my career. ... You basically had uncontrolled groundwater contamination, surface water contamination, off-gassing of ammonia.”
In 1987, the Ohio EPA sued Barmet over the ammonia gas and salt runoff that was caused when rainwater reacted with the dross. As part of a settlement, Barmet from 1993 to 2001 trucked most of the aluminum waste to Countywide.
The landfill started accepting the waste the year before an Ohio EPA memo warned that the dross, also called salt cake, could ignite, explode and generate toxic gases when exposed to water.
Rine said Barmet would have tested the waste for the four characteristics and would have given Countywide the paperwork showing it passed the tests. Rine’s office never examined the results.
Through mergers, Barmet is now part of Aleris International, which is based in Beachwood. The company declined to comment, saying it doesn’t discuss “pending regulatory proceedings involving third parties.”
Todd Thalhamer, a landfill fire expert and Ohio EPA consultant who is evaluating Countywide, agreed all dross doesn’t cause problems.“If I’m disposing of aluminum dross that doesn’t react, then it’s OK to put in a landfill,” he said. But, “obviously some of this aluminum dross in Countywide landfill is reactive.”
OTHERS DON’T SEE GRAY
In contrast with environmental regulators, the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Coast Guard list aluminum dross as hazardous.
When carried by truck or ship, it must be sealed in waterproof containers. Coast Guard regulations warn “contact with water may cause self heating and the evolution of flammable gas.” And it can’t be transported in a truck if it is hot or wet.
Critics say the Ohio EPA should set similar restrictions.
Letting generators determine if a substance is hazardous is a bad idea, said Jack Shaner, spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Council.
“This is the wrong place for an honor system,” he said.
Richard Sahli, the attorney for Club 3000 — which is fighting Countywide’s expansion — said he believes Ohio EPA always has had the authority to declare the dross hazardous.
“The (waste) industry was far more important to the Ohio EPA than the public ever was. ... They had the authority but they didn’t use it to protect the people of Stark and Tuscarawas counties.
“Under both the Taft and Voinovich administrations, the waste industry ... had dominant political power with Ohio EPA,” he added.
Former Ohio Governor Bob Taft could not be reached for comment. His last EPA director, Joe Koncelik, said Countywide’s problems are unprecedented and the subject of whether aluminum dross is a hazard “never came up during my eight years at Ohio EPA until the Countywide situation.”
Former governor George Voinovich’s spokeswoman, Garrette Silverman, dismissed Sahli’s claims that the waste industry’s campaign contributions to Voinovich, who is now a U.S. senator, affected the state’s environmental policy. She called the attorney’s accusations “absurd.”
Shaner said the dross never should have gone into a solid waste landfill.
“Unfortunately, we have a huge chemistry laboratory experiment underground at Countywide.”
What is aluminum dross?
Dross is a byproduct of recycling aluminum. Recyclers melt down scrap aluminum and put salts into it to draw out impurities. The impurities become aluminum dross, a gray, powdery material.
The Canton Repository
PIKE TWP - The U.S. Department of Transportation says it’s hazardous.
In Wabash, Ind., it’s suspected of causing a fire last year in at least one, if not two, landfills.
And south of Uhrichsville, in Tuscarawas County, it produced ammonia gas and contaminated a wetland. Later, nearly a million tons of it were trucked to Stark County and buried at Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township.
So why don’t the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. EPA list aluminum dross as a hazardous waste? And why isn’t it restricted from solid waste landfills?
LEGALLY NOT HAZARDOUS
Ohio EPA staffer Jeff Mayhugh wrote that state code prohibits his agency from listing a material as hazardous unless the U.S. EPA does so.
U.S. EPA spokeswoman Roxanne Smith wrote that “the universe of aluminum dross waste is too diverse to make a general determination whether all aluminum dross is or is not a characteristic hazardous waste.”
Federal regulations say any one of four things makes a substance hazardous:
- It ignites
- It can corrode a metal container
- It reacts to the point of causing “explosions, toxic fumes, gases or vapors when heated, compressed, or mixed with water”
- It’s toxic, which is “harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed”
Ohio EPA officials believe liquid waste mixed with the dross at Countywide and set off two underground fires in late 2005, raising the levels of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and other gases. They’re recommending Countywide lose its operating license unless it addresses the problems.
Still, Mayhugh wrote, to be considered hazardous, a substance must give off enough toxic gases to pose a danger to human health or the environment. The agency doesn’t believe that has happened with aluminum waste. And, generally, dross “doesn’t catch fire as much as it smokes or releases gas or fumes when reacted with water.”
WHO DECIDES?
By law, said Ramon Mendoza, a U.S. EPA environment engineer, waste generators determine if their waste is hazardous, testing for any of the four characteristics. The test results usually are not checked by regulators unless a problem is brought to their attention.
If waste is determined to be hazardous, companies have to spend more to send it to a hazardous waste landfill.
More than 25 years ago, regulators tried to designate aluminum dross as hazardous — and it involved the company that generated the aluminum waste that’s now at Countywide.
From 1978 to 1980, Barmet Aluminum dumped more than 250,000 tons of aluminum dross from its Livia, Ky., aluminum recycling facility at a landfill near Island, Ky., the U.S. EPA says. After residents complained about odors from the landfill, the U.S. EPA advised Kentucky to treat the waste as a hazard because of its reactivity.
Barmet sued in federal court. A judge ruled in 1981 that the law didn’t allow dross to be considered hazardous.
At Barmet’s aluminum recycling plant south of Uhrichsville, piles of aluminum dross covered 4 1/2 acres and towered over Barmet buildings in the 1980s. From the plant manager’s office, “the view immediately out of his window was the side of the gray waste pile,” said Ohio EPA supervisor Steve Rine.
“This was one of the worst sites I’ve seen in my career. ... You basically had uncontrolled groundwater contamination, surface water contamination, off-gassing of ammonia.”
In 1987, the Ohio EPA sued Barmet over the ammonia gas and salt runoff that was caused when rainwater reacted with the dross. As part of a settlement, Barmet from 1993 to 2001 trucked most of the aluminum waste to Countywide.
The landfill started accepting the waste the year before an Ohio EPA memo warned that the dross, also called salt cake, could ignite, explode and generate toxic gases when exposed to water.
Rine said Barmet would have tested the waste for the four characteristics and would have given Countywide the paperwork showing it passed the tests. Rine’s office never examined the results.
Through mergers, Barmet is now part of Aleris International, which is based in Beachwood. The company declined to comment, saying it doesn’t discuss “pending regulatory proceedings involving third parties.”
Todd Thalhamer, a landfill fire expert and Ohio EPA consultant who is evaluating Countywide, agreed all dross doesn’t cause problems.“If I’m disposing of aluminum dross that doesn’t react, then it’s OK to put in a landfill,” he said. But, “obviously some of this aluminum dross in Countywide landfill is reactive.”
OTHERS DON’T SEE GRAY
In contrast with environmental regulators, the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Coast Guard list aluminum dross as hazardous.
When carried by truck or ship, it must be sealed in waterproof containers. Coast Guard regulations warn “contact with water may cause self heating and the evolution of flammable gas.” And it can’t be transported in a truck if it is hot or wet.
Critics say the Ohio EPA should set similar restrictions.
Letting generators determine if a substance is hazardous is a bad idea, said Jack Shaner, spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Council.
“This is the wrong place for an honor system,” he said.
Richard Sahli, the attorney for Club 3000 — which is fighting Countywide’s expansion — said he believes Ohio EPA always has had the authority to declare the dross hazardous.
“The (waste) industry was far more important to the Ohio EPA than the public ever was. ... They had the authority but they didn’t use it to protect the people of Stark and Tuscarawas counties.
“Under both the Taft and Voinovich administrations, the waste industry ... had dominant political power with Ohio EPA,” he added.
Former Ohio Governor Bob Taft could not be reached for comment. His last EPA director, Joe Koncelik, said Countywide’s problems are unprecedented and the subject of whether aluminum dross is a hazard “never came up during my eight years at Ohio EPA until the Countywide situation.”
Former governor George Voinovich’s spokeswoman, Garrette Silverman, dismissed Sahli’s claims that the waste industry’s campaign contributions to Voinovich, who is now a U.S. senator, affected the state’s environmental policy. She called the attorney’s accusations “absurd.”
Shaner said the dross never should have gone into a solid waste landfill.
“Unfortunately, we have a huge chemistry laboratory experiment underground at Countywide.”
What is aluminum dross?
Dross is a byproduct of recycling aluminum. Recyclers melt down scrap aluminum and put salts into it to draw out impurities. The impurities become aluminum dross, a gray, powdery material.
