Show Transcript
Disclaimer: The following transcript was auto-generated and may contain spelling or contextual errors.
You're watching Open Agenda. Here's our
host, Joe White.
>> I'm at the Newland Park landfill on the
west side of Wakamaku County off Brick
Kill Road. I've come here today to meet
with Adam Corey, who's the acting
superintendent of the landfill. He has
explained in public works sessions and
at the county executive's press
conference, some of the challenges he
feels the county faces for space in cell
8. and he's also laid out a timeline for
the construction and the implementation
of cell 7. I want to get a chance to
find out some of the challenges he's
faced in the last 8 months since he's
accepted the position here in Wakamaku
County and what does he see as some of
the potential pitfalls that we may face
as we fill up our landfill.
>> You Mr. Adam Corey for bringing us in
for a tour of the landfill and uh who's
this with you today? So this is uh Miss
Carissa Gortz. She is our new
environmental compliance technician.
>> Let's do an overview of what did we see
when we went around the the landfill.
>> You know, where officers are located,
where our brush pile operations are
located, our recycling, the interior of
our cardboard and bailing operations,
bi-metal, our plastics room and stuff
like that. Then we kind of took a look
at the convenience center. convenience
center is the one here main at Brick uh
Brick Kill where it's open to the public
all days of the week, not just your ones
that are out in the satellite
communities like the the Monday,
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and partial
hours on Sunday. Uh we looked at our
waste oil recovery, anifreeze recovery
for the public, our recycling material
drop off for batteries, things of that
nature. And then we started coming
across the scales and heading up the
hill. Um, we took a look in cell 7 or
what will be cell 7. Talked a little bit
about the geotechnical borings that we
just completed. The fact that we've made
a decision to change our sump uh design
and elevation design as far as where
that riser house is going to be to
effectively
not eliminate but soften the blow of how
much old historic material would have to
be excavated out. So, we made a minor
modification to the design. That
decision has been made to try to save
some space as well. Now, you also showed
me several areas where you're choosing
to to strategically use some saddle
areas just to gain even some slight
areas, but even maybe some bigger areas,
but you have to construct roads.
>> Correct.
>> To access those. Is that right?
>> That's correct. You know, this is the
actual color volumetric analysis data
that we had done by Maryland
Environmental Service and then
collaboratively worked on the analysis
with our engineering firm EA to find out
where we stood on our total available
air space in cubic yards. And that's how
you come up with your volume analysis to
say this is how much time you've got.
When you see areas that are green on
this map, it might be a little deceiving
because you say, "Okay, oh, all those
green areas must mean go." They
technically do. It's but how much height
is actually available when you start
taking into account the slopes, the
grades, and how do you get the trash to
those places? But yeah, you're right.
When we took our tour, I showed you like
our rear hall road. You know, you build
a new rear hall road out of trash. Well,
while we're doing that, let's take
advantage of filling some of these other
benches and saddles that we have
airspace in to again relieve some of
that pressure that's on cell 8, 9, and
10 in that airspace so that we can again
buy ourselves more time in preparation
for sale 7. One of the things that we
got hit with as soon as I walked in the
door um was a couple of non-compliance
items that had been of concern.
>> This entire 7 and 1/4 acres previous
managers of the landfill when I talked
earlier about filling saddles to get
space.
>> Yeah.
>> They filled every one of these saddles
from the top all the way to the bottom.
Now, good, bad, or indifferent, the the
challenge that created was this entire
front slope was never stabilized.
>> Okay? So the state of Maryland, you
know, put it out there for the landfill
long before I got here. You're in
non-compliance for sediment roads
control and and a couple of other
things. But I'm really really proud of
our team what we did here. This was a
heck of an undertaking. Um the shore
stadium was being that portion of the
shore stadium that the to the left of
the dugout, the old uh merrygo round
area and all that.
>> Yeah. We ended up getting I think it was
1,900 cubic yards of which was primo top
soil from that excavation activity and
we brought they brought it here and uh
we were able to use it to dress this
top. We did air quality monitoring to
make sure that we didn't have any
methane issues. We found that some of
the gas wells here that were on this
front slope were not pulling enough
vacuum. So you were getting rogue
methane emissions, killing the grass
that was previously planted and just
leaving it everything bare. So the next
thing we did instead of planting this
with
um Kentucky fescue and you know
whatever, we did I think it was 11
individual native species,
>> okay,
>> of wildflower and wild grasses. So
>> and those are expensive.
>> They are, but they they hold and they're
native. And we did wild oats as well.
And what you see that's brown up here is
actually where the oats had have this is
just since April have already come up
seeded and gone dry.
>> Now let's talk about where we're at with
with uh cell 8.
>> Uh you you are concerned that the
increase of 26% that you've incre that
you've witnessed the last couple years.
uh at that rate you do feel like it's
it's likely that we'll run out of
airspace at least in cell eight before
cell 7's construction might be complete
>> at least in cell 8. So the the g the
idea the game plan is to try to stall
that as best we possibly can for the for
the benefit of having no closure, no
full-blown closure where we have to
transport material out of the county to
work again with the council on some good
legislation to you stop outside trash.
If we can control that and get a nice
drop, um you know, it really really
helps us buy that time that we need. And
again, like I said before, we shouldn't
be taking other people's trash anyway.
we will be getting very very close too
close for comfort uh comfort in cell
eight but again we do have other
strategic locations on the property that
we want to put waste in and if you
evaluate those areas and do your best to
make sure that you're utilizing that
space appropriately you're going to buy
even more time so the estimate was you
know 12 to 14 months based on that March
flyover you know that's to that's your
airspace if we can get more waste placed
in areas of the landfill it's just how
do you get to them
>> so uh cell is going to be the final cell
built on this same side of Brick Kil
Road. U on the other side of Brick Kil
Road is the expansion.
>> That's where your horizontal expansion
would be.
>> Uh and that's that's for future. And you
addressed this uh at the at the county
executives press conference that as soon
as cell 7 is done, you're starting off
with the survey and the
>> groundbreaking begins. And frankly, uh
this this as soon as the first frost,
>> we're going to get the additional survey
work done. I never want this county to
be in this position again. Where are we
at with the design stage of cell 7?
>> So right now today and I've got this
role is a 60% set with the sump
placement. That's the most important
part. The other portions that are your
your electrical engineering, your storm
water management, which we made the
decisions on here just a month and a
half ago, I give or take. It was about a
month and a half that we did the
decision to move our sump location, our
riser house location to again not have
to be encumbered by that additional
historic trash and utilize a different
storm water pathway. So the storm water
management design, the electrical, and a
few other engineering pieces, and then
you're at you're at 100% design.
>> At what point can you put the the
construction out for request for
proposal? as soon as you have your your
your sign off from the state that your
permit is good.
>> So, what's what's your timeline goal?
What what do you hope to get the permit
signed and that you can put out for
proposal?
>> I would like to be able to have this in
their hands as a final design by the
first or second week of August. Okay.
>> They have a specific review period as
far as the days they're allowed to hold
it for review. The state has already
been very very kind to say they're going
to do their very best to give us an
expedited review. Carissa, you've been
in constant contact with some of the
gentlemen up there in MDE in Baltimore
that are going to be overseeing the
permit and the construction effort and
um we got a very good working
relationship with them.
>> So, Carissa, you've seen like the size
and scope of the plans and the permits.
Is it is it is it a lot for a lay person
to understand? to some degree I would
say so because there's multiple permits
I've kind of been involved in since
starting here like our oil operations
permit which we have submitted with NTE
the refuge disposal permit that we're
trying to do a resubmitt for even SPCC
our spill prevention countermeasures
control I've gotten involved in that and
working directly with EA and MP but like
he said we have a very good relationship
with them everybody here is great know
it's all about trying to make this place
better
>> if you Adam if you are able to to put
out for proposal in August as Hope
>> proposal in August for RFP wouldn't be
it. So original bidding phase somewhere
around 15 days.
>> Okay.
>> The hopes for that would be the 1st and
second week of November. You get your
RFIs and review of bids by December 1st,
December 5th at a recommendation of
award by the first week of January and
then you've got construction. In a
perfect world, you're looking at 85 to
100 days for construction. Now, do we
have the money allocated to build this
cell or will
>> it is in the CIP? Is it going to go to
bond? Is this
>> It will have to.
>> Okay. You're hoping for favorable
weather. And you can't control weather.
>> If all goes well based on the timeline
that we've put together, your
construction would be would begin
effectively um late January to early
February.
>> And then about how long does it take to
build?
>> 85 to 100 days. Land you the first week
of June.
>> Okay. Uh what's our best case scenario
for even using these shoulder areas?
>> The shoulder areas are going to get
eaten up very quickly, but they're so
hard to get to. You need to have at
least one half of your current staff
diverted to another portion of the
landfill on every given day.
>> There's a diminishing return. You did
the aerial survey, the LAR survey in um
in March.
>> Yep.
>> Uh I assume you got the results back
shortly after that.
>> April 18th, I believe it was. If if you
did know sometime in the spring that
there was going to be a shortage of
space before cell 7 was done, why was it
that no one really saw the the county
executive's plan until mid June?
>> I want to let her answer that question
honestly though. Um but to the point of
where we stand with our operations, what
we need to do when you identify a
problem, how do we fix it? We we were
trying to have that conversation out
there and at the same time making game
plans like this of what do we need to do
to ramp up and really really force cell
7 to the forefront.
>> But you were able to at least express
from the acting superintendent
standpoint that there was that there was
going to be airspace problem as as as
soon as April.
>> Yeah. I mean we one of the one of the
things we started seeing was things were
just not lining up. You know what I
mean? visually on the landfill on a
daily basis. If you're here every day
and you see it every day, you really
will recognize the changing and even
before we did the aerial, you're looking
at it and going, "This this just feels
like we're moving too fast." Um, once
you get it confirmed through good
scientific data collection and analysis,
then you have to come up with a plan.
And and from the day that we got that
analysis, we started working that plan.
When it comes to cell 7, you had to you
had to put in a permit to start that
design process or you had to start the
design process. When was the design
process started for cell 7?
>> Um, we started the design back in that
was before April 23rd
>> of this year. Okay. In an ideal world,
could should have started soon.
>> Seriously, the the the real layout of
cell 7 and the additional permit
modifications, I mean, that stuff goes
back as far as 2006. You know, one of
the other things that the county um did,
you know, before I got here was we we
switched our an engineering firm from
Geocentech to EA.
>> Did that delay getting the design phase
started for Cell 7?
>> No.
>> Was it was it maybe could it have been
started sooner?
>> I think yeah, it everything's clear in
2020 vision in hindsight, right? But
>> absolutely.
>> You know, could it have been started
sooner? Sure. Um should it have been? I
don't necessarily know the warning signs
again. I just got here in October. The
first thing I did for the first six
months was literally try to get this
place back on its feet. Um and we did
that. I'm very proud of that. We have a
great crew here. Once we got through
that, we really start looking, okay,
where's our tonnage? Where is it coming
from? How do we look as far as time
left? Um because again, some of the
leadership was under the impression we
had a lot more time left in this
landfill than we did.
>> When you start doing the math and it
doesn't add up, you got a problem. Well,
someone in your position, you would you
would be the one to ring the bell to
say, "Hey, listen. There there there's
not enough time left." So, prior to
October of 24, you can't speak to that,
but it's likely that someone did not
ring that alarm bell at least loud
enough or hear it.
>> All I can tell you is about what I'm
doing since I've been here. I mean,
look, the data the data speaks for
itself.
>> Um, you can go back and and do the
autopsy. Um, and and we need to do that,
okay, to learn from it.
>> Yeah. Um, and again, I'll say it like I
said a minute ago, Joe, the county
should never be in this position again.
And if as long as I'm here, we're not
going to be in this position again.
>> At the last county council meeting, uh,
listened to one gentleman uh, from
Wakamaku County. He he stated that he
had been at the there was three three u
workshops
>> and and at none of those workshops he
heard about the airspace limitations
that that you're worried about. Now,
I've been in attendance uh to the
workshops that Solid Waste has put on.
One in November 2024, another March of
this year, and I believe I attended
another open work session they had uh in
um this one of these sessions. Um so, I
found it really odd watching that uh
press release or press conference that
the executive had yesterday. It seemed
really misleading. a lot of the
statements there, you know, the the
10-year plan they submitted, you know,
said the landfill was operational for
the foreseeable future. I had no
indication during any of those workshops
or open work sessions that there was
some pressing dire need uh that we were
running out of space so fast that it was
not a topic of discussion. And and you
know, when you made that comment, I
thought, gone, you know what, he's
right, but at the same time, you got to
keep something in perspective as far as
the spring workshop was concerned. That
was March 19th. I didn't have the
flyover data back. November and the
March workshops, the November 24 and
March 25 workshops that we did at the
civic center, and I appreciate them
attending for sure, and they've been
very engaged in it. Um, yeah, March
19th, 25, I didn't have that data back.
Now, in in the county executive's phase
plan for closure, uh on August 1st or
the first Saturday in August, she would
have the the landfill closing here to to
commercial, not not uh not municipal,
but commercial.
>> Yes.
>> Uh do you feel like that would be an
effective strategy it or would more
trash just simply show up on Monday when
the landfill reopens?
>> I think the idea of phased approach is
again, we're in the conversation we have
to do something because we're in a
crisis, right? I think and I think you
know Director Luffman stated it the
other day when we were in front of
council I believe on July 1st. If we can
get this legislation right and make it
where we are strictly prohibiting
outside trash and codifying that you
don't need to go to a phased approach.
Um I don't want it the phased approach
is is tough on people right? Um but you
got to do something. The concept of a
phased approach is you try to get that
trash hauler to take it somewhere else.
You have some companies that wouldn't be
affected by it on a Saturday really. A
Saturday and a Monday, maybe they would
be. Would they just be lined up out the
gate on a Tuesday? Likely, right? But
there's some haulers that can hold on to
their trash more than one day,
>> but they would still bring youirect.
So would you would you see the
perspective from a regular citizen that
they're frustrated that they would hear
about the phase closure before they
heard about the solutions like you're
talking about using the saddle areas
using u legislation to to ban uh outside
trash? Wouldn't wouldn't would it make
sense to you that that would frustrate
the public?
>> I empathize with it, Joe. I I do. I do
and I understand their point. Um, I'm
I'm I appreciate the one thing that's
come out of all of this is is people are
talking about the landfill and when and
I mean that very sincerely.
It's an afterthought until it's staring
in the face.
>> Do you have another public workshop
scheduled for
>> We have another hall meeting scheduled
in December.
>> Okay.
>> And then I would hope to have another
fall workshop. Would you would you be
amicable to sitting down with me again
after you maybe like sometime in
November and uh at the very least we
could give the public an update on on on
all these subjects.
>> I do want to note some things that we
have done outside of operations because
you've been doing a great job doing
that. I do want to focus a little bit on
the science aspects and reporting
aspects that we've done because not only
has he been doing operational things,
he's also been improving all our
regulatory and our compliance stuff. So
I do want to note some things on that.
So the spill prevention control
countermeasures plan, we have that right
here with EA, our oil operations permit
that's been sent in, our refuge disposal
recent bill. And I want to talk about
things
>> our air permit our PTC for our Peterson.
>> We actually just got that after the
fact.
>> Yep. Um I want to talk about our
groundwater sampling data that we've
been doing. We do a semianual for
parasaltic pumps and then I actually do
depth to water measurements as well. So,
we're looking for any material or
excessive sediment within the water. And
then we have our leech shape hauling
data that I've been doing reporting on
and the levels of lead shape depending
on the amount of preip looking for
correlations on that. I do daily riser
house readings which is looking at the
input of leech that we're getting in.
>> Yeah.
>> Pond inspections. Yeah.
>> Daily cover leech.
>> Absolutely. Looking at the pH, um the
level of the ponds, um excessive
sediment as well. leate seeps like he
said vegetation we're looking at the
vegetative stabilization on everything.
So yes it's
>> and landfall gas.
>> Yes absolutely. So not only has he been
doing all this operation stuff but you
have to keep in mind like we're doing
all that in the background that nobody
understands and that's a lot of
documentation a lot of reporting a lot
of data that we've been working with MD
and EA. So it is it is overwhelming and
it is a lot.
>> Retention pond the one that that is now
broken. Um the lie containment two 1
million gallon vessels you see one of
them is empty right now.
>> Yes.
>> The only thing that's in that is rain
water right now.
>> Reason being is just about April it gave
up the ghost.
>> I was you know the the the leech liners
themselves are beyond their design and
service life. I'm not blaming anybody
but probably that that should have been
looked at a long time ago. You know 10
15 years ago for that matter. These were
designed for 20 to five, I believe it
was, and they are the original ones. You
know, they're from I want to say 93.
Fortunately, we're in good shape right
now with the second, but it's the same
age as the first. We did an emergency
evacuation of that entire thing. Um, we
did find where the the leak was.
Fortunately, when that happened, and of
course, everything happens in the middle
of the night, you know, during a storm
that a storm will test your landfill.
Yeah. from from sediment erosion control
to wet wells to pumps um your leech
containment obviously. So when that
occurred fortunately the leak detection
box and the leak detection sump did its
job.
>> Okay.
>> Right. It did not leak into our
secondary containment all around the
exterior of those two vessels. That
whole bowl of kind of grassy stone is a
whole another secondary line containment
area. So fortunately when that leak did
occur it was captured into the leak
detection sump that went into alarm and
then our team uh along with I got to
give you know credit where credit's due
the roads division those guys you know
gave us drivers for as much time as we
needed and the city of Salsbury was just
great uh to allow us to run some
additional loads of leech until we were
able to get that leech level down to
empty. the original manufacturer
designer who's still in business is is
preparing us a new liner right now.
>> Now, when you all need to replace a
liner like that,
>> you like you have the financial ability
to do that. You don't you don't have to
wait or do you have to?
>> We had to wait till the new fiscal year
for this one. Yeah, there's and
>> just wasn't enough money in the budget.
>> Just wasn't enough money in the budget.
>> The secondary spill held and the sub
pump worked. The alarm went off, but you
don't have another backup now. So if
that one goes out
>> now we have a we have a bigger problem.
>> And that's that liner just the liner is
$168,000.
>> But $168,000
is a lot cheaper than the millions it
would cost.
>> Can you imagine what the environmental
cleanup would be if you lost a million
gallons of leade in Owens Branch?
>> All right. Well, thank you. Can I get
some of the pictures of some of this
stuff?
The other cool thing about working here,
it's a nice stress reliever. At the end
of the day, like 4:00, shut the computer
down. I'm usually pretty much on the
hill all day long. I'll try to get in
the office an hour or two at a time. But
at like 4:00, if I'm, you know, squared
away on the computer, I come up here,
jump in a piece of equipment, and start
working.
>> Yeah. Play with the big toys.
>> It's a great stress reliever.
>> Yeah. November of 24, we started our
drawings and planning to figure out what
our figures were going to be. And we,
you know, we had to determine was it
going to be worth was the juice going to
be worth the squeeze to make a large
turnaround up here and have to cut out
of that burm and move that material down
in the cells. When I started looking at
the waste calculations, I'm like, I
don't think we should be doing that.
Let's move this a little differently and
start placing material down into areas
that still have permitted airspace and
filling these old saddles that are down
in here. The the issue is you How do you
how do you get to it? Okay. Without
dropping it in there with a helicopter.
>> Yeah.
>> You know, you're not gonna back.
>> You're allowed to go up, but you have to
get out there to do it.
>> I got to get out there to do it. And I
also have to make sure I don't exceed
certain slopes. And I can't I can't mess
that final grade. But trying to get as
much use out of that space that we have
down here to prevent running out of
space here is the is the goal. Down on
is the actual unlined old portions of
the landfill. Right. The civic center,
the old civic center that burned down is
actually over there at that first hump
all the way as far as you can see.
>> Wow. It's pretty cool. A little bit of
history there.
>> Yeah.
>> But are we standing on top of here? Is
this 10?
>> No, no, no. This is
this be six. Six. So, we're like in
between six and four.
>> And then nine and 10 are in front of us.
>> Uh once you get past that hump.
>> Okay.
>> Can you use this saddle area
>> portion of it? We're gaining that
elevation there. As we come across with
our waist placement to come to that
elevation, the goal would be to go back
one more time. Okay,
>> that'll probably get us to 6 and 1/2
months from now, give or take. Um, you
know, at that point, you want to have
things rocking and rolling cuz the goal
is to have cell 7 constructed by May or
June. That's the goal. Uh, approval by
the state. Of course, they already have
preliminary approvals. This is the last
cell of the footprint. They expected it
and it's almost identical to cell eight
is to have that to them, you know, first
week of August. Okay.
>> Okay.
>> That's it's
>> so it's less than four weeks away
>> is to get that to them first week of
August, second week of August. That's
the goal. Um, so while that comes along,
again, 6 months from today, give or
take, is when we start gaining elevation
to this portion here where there's still
airspace around cells. Uh, six.
>> Where'd you go to school?
>> Salsbury.
>> What was your What was your degree in
there?
>> Environmental health science.
>> Okay.
>> I was the last class they got and they
got rid of the degree. So my my class it
was me and about five other guys that
worked for the state that were all they
all were licensed environmental health
specialists. This Salsbury University my
uncle who worked for Maryland Department
of Environment retired with 41 years of
state service same degree uh he became a
licensed environmental health specialist
and he was my icon. He's the reason I
got into the field I got into was
because of him. You know, I always
worked with him since I was a kid on his
Christmas tree farm there in Delmar on
Mine Road.
>> Oh yeah.
>> I always loved listening to Uncle Jake
tell me stories about his experiences
with the state and I decided that's what
I wanted to do. So it's unfortunate that
Salsbury University did not have a high
enough enrollment. I want to make it
right for the county. That's all I can
tell you.
And it's not easy. But we're going to do
it, man. We don't have a choice. We
either do it or we don't.
We also bring you a BONUS EPISODE this week (S2 E27)! You won't want to miss this onsite tour of the Newland Park Landfill and interview with the acting Landfill Superintendent. Links to both episodes are found below. Tune in and be informed.
