CINCINNATI — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has granted a permit enabling Rumpke Consolidated Companies Inc. to expand the use of its Bond Road landfill in Whitewater Township.
The new permit allows Rumpke to haul up to 1,500 tons per day to the 575-acre site on the Ohio-Indiana border. That’s 15 times more than its previous permit allowed.
Rumpke said it has no immediate plans to haul more waste to the site, while critics say they’re gearing up for a long-term battle against the landfill’s expansion.
“We are just planning for the future needs of the region,” said Rumpke Spokeswoman Molly Yeager. “We don’t have an exact timeline of when we might start utilizing it. We have been working on constructing a new entrance off Sand Run Road which will give us better access to the site. But that infrastructure is not complete yet.”
The permit says Rumpke anticipates hauling about 400 tons to the site daily, a pace that would keep the landfill in use for 48 years. If Rumpke expands to the 1,500-ton maximum, the landfill would reach capacity in less than 13 years.
“We’re just trying to help protect the environment from society’s trash,” Yeager said. “Landfills are highly regulated. They are designed to protect the environment from the trash. There’s many environmental safeguards in there to ensure that things such as wastewater are properly handled here at the site.”
Critics of the expansion are considering whether to challenge the permit in court or at the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission.
“Landfills always impact the land around them,” said Tim Mara, a volunteer for Oxbow Inc., a conservation group that opposes the expansion. “Neighbors are clearly affected and the environment is clearly impacted. And Ohio EPA doesn’t take this seriously.”
Mara said the agency is allowing Rumpke to make incremental changes to its Bond Road landfill when it should be taking a holistic approach.
"This is not our final opportunity to either stop or change this landfill," Mara said. "So, this is going to be a battle that’s going to continue for a long time.”
Gary Hammerle isn't ready to throw in the towel either.
“A landfill is forever,” said Hammerle, an Indiana resident who filed a verified complaint in March urging Ohio EPA to permanently close the Bond Run landfill for lack of use. EPA rejected that complaint. Hammerle is weighing legal options.
“Increased traffic. Increased potential risk of groundwater contamination, surface water contamination. It’s just not the best place for it,” Hammerle said. “There are better options.”
Ohio EPA was required to hold a public hearing and address community concerns related to the landfill expansion. A July report on the hearing lists 53 concerns, 18 of which were answered with the same statement: “This comment does not pertain to this application.”
Among the comments EPA deemed irrelevant to the permit were:
“If a roadway accident occurs involving a truck carrying leachate, fugitive leachate spill may contaminate nearby streams.”
“There will be a truck-washing facility near the new Sand Run Road entrance … is there a sediment pond to catch the mud from the undercarriages of the garbage trucks and leachate tankers before they leave the premises?”
“Why should Hamilton County bear the brunt of two large dumps — one is enough!”
Of the questions that were addressed, Ohio EPA said Rumpke has four storage facilities totaling 80,000 gallons to collect groundwater runoff, or leachate, from the site.
That storage capacity could increase to 322,000 gallons under the new permit. Air quality is regulated by an EPA permit last renewed in June. EPA said it lacked authority to regulate the hauling of solid waste from locations outside Hamilton County and it can’t “consider roadway impacts or house values when evaluating a solid waste permit application.”
