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New landfill permit puts county outside standards

Subhead
MPCA authorizes permit, knowing local test history exceeded new groundwater standards
By
Mavis Fodness

Through persistent work by county officials and a hired hydrogeologist, Rock County received its renewed landfill permit after almost nine years of waiting.
However, days after receiving notice of the permit approval earlier this month, the permit’s new testing perimeters placed the demolition landfill out of compliance with state standards.
Rock County Land Management Director Eric Hartman briefed commissioners at their regular Sept. 19 meeting after his office received the Sept. 8 email from Mike Mondlock with Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Solid Waste Permitting Unit.
“(MPCA) hereby issues this permit and authorizes the Permittee listed on the following page to construct and operate the facility under the conditions set forth in this permit,” Mondlock’s letter read.
“This permit is effective on the issuance date identified above, and supersedes the previous permit that was issued for this facility.”
The new permit limits the acceptable levels of manganese and boron detected in the landfill’s groundwater monitoring wells.
“Until the renewal permit was issued, we could operate under the previous permit,” Hartman said.
The previous permit did not stipulate any exceeded perimeters of the two elements.
Commissioners questioned why the state issued a permit with the new test limits, knowing the local landfill consistently exceeded those limits for the past six years of test results.
Hartman received no answer from state officials as to the inclusion of the new testing limits in the county’s new permit. He was also unsure how the state determined the test result limits.
Hydrologist Melanie Niday with Short Elliot Henderson Inc. in St. Cloud worked with Hartman in notifying state officials that the local landfill is already out of compliance with its newly issued permit and what the local course of action would be.
“Detections do not warrant corrective action or represent a risk to human health,” Niday stated in an email to state officials. “… boron and manganese have been known to occur in groundwater due to the presence of the demolition landfill. …The source of boron and manganese may be due in part to demolition waste leachate as well as the dissolution and suspension of minerals by percolating water through on-site soils.”
Hartman reminded commissioners the demolition landfill is located below the closed municipal solid waste landfill, which could be the source or an additional source of the manganese and boron levels. The former MSW is managed by the MPCA.
As a reminder of safety, Hartman said property below the demolition landfill is owned by Rock County and rural water is available to residences near the landfill. He said the few existing domestic wells in the area are more than 115 feet deep, below the clay-confining layer.
Niday and Hartman are expected to discuss the landfill and its renewed permit with commissioners at their next regular meeting Oct. 3.
The meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the commissioners room of the Rock County Courthouse.
 
About the landfill
The Rock County LMO submitted paperwork for its permit renewal in March 2009. The demolition landfill was first permitted in 1998 and received a renewal in 2004.
LMO received notification in 2015 that more information was needed before state officials could finish the permit renewal. A new monitoring well was installed and a hydrogeologist was hired as a result.
Niday was hired in late 2015 and examined Rock County’s water sampling results for the past decade. She indicated there had been no significant change in the test results when compared to more recent samples.
Niday summarized her findings in a hydrology report in early 2016 indicating Rock County’s clay liner and current practices are effective protection for the area’s groundwater.
The demolition landfill gives residents a place to deposit debris from construction projects or from natural disasters. Having an adequate place to bring materials has eliminated the burning and burial of debris on private land throughout the state.

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