{"id":6957,"date":"2013-12-08T13:14:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T18:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=6957"},"modified":"2013-12-08T13:29:37","modified_gmt":"2013-12-08T18:29:37","slug":"u-s-epa-ga-dnr-ga-health-dept-and-landfill-in-lowndes-county-epa-2013-11-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/u-s-epa-ga-dnr-ga-health-dept-and-landfill-in-lowndes-county-epa-2013-11-14.html","title":{"rendered":"U.S. EPA, GA DNR, GA Health Dept., and landfill in Lowndes County @ EPA 2013-11-14"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAt the\r\n\r\nEPA meeting in Waycross about the Seven Out Superfund site,<\/a>\r\nEPA, GA EPD, and state health officials also had information about\r\ncrossover contamination in Lowndes County.\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nMatthew J. Huyser, On-Scene Coordinator for U.S. EPA,\r\ntold me that before\r\n\r\nEPA shipped those 196,500 gallons of wastewater from Seven Out to the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County<\/a>\r\nthey had applied procedures that were supposed to ensure those liquids\r\nwere no longer toxic and had tested them to be sure.\r\nHe said he would send me the specifics on that.\r\nI didn’t ask him whether\r\n\r\nCSX toxic wastes were shipped to Lowndes County<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nHuyser also said EPA had checked the record of that receiving landfill\r\nbefore sending anything there, and it had a good record.\r\nHe seemed surprised to learn of the\r\n\r\n$27,500 fine from GA EPD for PCBs<\/a> to that same landfill.\r\nHe asked if that was after the shipments from Waycross.\r\nI said yes, early this year.\r\nHe said nonetheless that made him want to look further into the\r\nrecord of that landfill, and he wrote a note.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nIt wasn’t clear whether Huyser was aware\r\n\r\nthat landfill is in a recharge for the Floridan Aquifer<\/a>,\r\nthe source of our drinking water,\r\nand a short distance uphill from the Withlacoochee River.\r\nHe knows those things now.\r\n

\r\nI also mentioned to Huyser the\r\n\r\nTVA coal ash in the Lowndes County landfill<\/a>.\r\nHe didn’t seem as familiar with that.\r\nBut out front, keeping the attendance list, was\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nSherryl A. Lane, Community Involvement Coordinator, EPA<\/a>,\r\nwho was quite familiar with that coal ash, and readily\r\nacknowledged that yes, EPA had known some of it was shipped to Lowndes County.\r\nShe did not seem aware that the landfill had gotten a variance\r\nfrom GA EPD to spread some of it on the internal roads at the landfill.\r\n

\r\nMaybe I’ll remind her about the\r\n\r\nshareholder resolution to Southern Company<\/a> about\r\ncoal combustion waste (CCW or coal ash) that reads in part:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n“The toxins in CCW have been linked to cancer, organ failure,\r\nand other serious health problems. In October 2009, the U.S.\r\nEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a report finding\r\nthat ‘Pollutants in coal combustion wastewater are of particular\r\nconcern because they can occur in large quantities (i.e., total\r\npounds) and at high concentrations…in discharges and leachate to\r\ngroundwater and surface waters.’\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“The EPA has found evidence at over 60 sites in the U.S. that\r\nCCW has polluted ground and surface waters….\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nHere is that\r\nEPA report,\r\n\r\nSteam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category: Final Detailed Study Report (EPA 821-R-09-008)<\/a>.\r\nEPA’s\r\n\r\nown summary of that report<\/a> says:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nSteam electric power plants are responsible for a significant amount\r\nof the toxic pollutant loadings discharged to surface waters by\r\npoint sources, and coal ash ponds and flue gas desulfurization (FGD)\r\nsystems are the source of much of these pollutants.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nJim Brown, Program Manager<\/a>, Hazardous Waste Corrective Action Program,\r\nGeorgia Department of Natural Resource (GA DNR),\r\nEnvironmental Protection Division (GA EPD),\r\nLand Protection Branch,\r\nrecommended Mike Elster, Unit Manager, Treatment and Storage Unit,,\r\n404-656-7802,\r\nabout the landfill.\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nRoger Naylor, Public Relations Director for Southeast Health District<\/a>,\r\ntold me the state health department is looking for comparisons,\r\nand yes, he’d be interested in comparisons with\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nhazardous waste disposer Perma-Fix, which recently caught on fire in Valdosta<\/a>,\r\nand is on the same railroad, CSX, as the Seven Out Superfund site.\r\nThe state health department may also be interested in comparisons with the\r\nLowndes County landfill.\r\nNaylor knows\r\n\r\nDr. Grow of Health South District<\/a>, which includes Lowndes County;\r\nNaylor says the districts cooperate all the time.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the EPA meeting in Waycross about the Seven Out Superfund site, EPA, GA EPD, and state health officials also had information about crossover contamination in Lowndes County. Matthew J. Huyser, On-Scene Coordinator for U.S. EPA, told me that before EPA shipped those 196,500 gallons of wastewater from Seven Out to the Pecan Row Landfill […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[216,8,2,20,32,73,3,55],"tags":[7236,619,7289,474,7299,7293,8753,2406,7298,1545,4919,8722,8701,8699,7296,7297,7291,7019,548,8702,154,8710,12,7,7290,7024,7287,6714,6816,8715,7292,8731,7288,6917,7294,7295,7286,6916,8700,6,618,2376,8727,2597],"class_list":["post-6957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coal","category-georgia","category-government","category-law","category-pollution","category-safety","category-transparency","category-water","tag-14-november-2013","tag-ads","tag-ashby-nix","tag-bill-grow","tag-ccw","tag-citizen-input-and-contamination-testing","tag-coal","tag-coal-ash","tag-coal-combustion-waste","tag-csx","tag-environmental-protection-agency","tag-epa","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-health-south-district","tag-health-southeast-district","tag-jim-brown","tag-joan-martin-mcneal","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-landfill","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-matthew-j-huyser","tag-onyx","tag-org","tag-pecan-row-landfill","tag-perma-fix","tag-pollution","tag-roger-naylor","tag-safety","tag-satilla-riverkeeper","tag-seven-out","tag-seven-out-superfund-meeting","tag-sherryl-a-lane","tag-silentdisaster","tag-superfund","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-veolia","tag-ware-county","tag-water","tag-waycross"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1Od","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6957"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6972,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6957\/revisions\/6972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}