Landfill cleanup options studied

 

By Rob Pavey| Augusta Chronicle

Columbia County is exploring cleanup options to stem the flow of contaminated groundwater migrating from its aging Baker Place landfill near Grovetown.  When the landfill opened in 1982, its first two 30-acre waste burial cells did not have protective liners because laws requiring them were not adopted until 1990 and did not take effect until 1993.

Consequently, groundwater flowing beneath those areas has become contaminated with methane — “landfill gas” — and various materials contained in liquid leachate that settles to the bottom of landfill garbage as it decomposes.

“What we will be doing is addressing contamination that’s been discovered at that facility from that unlined portion of the landfill,” said Don Bartles, the county’s solid waste manager.

A later waste cell, which opened in the mid-1990s and closed in 2006 after it was filled, includes a protective liner and a leachate collection system.

A network of monitoring wells indicates a small plume of contamination that has moved southwest, off the landfill property, and onto a portion of Interstate 20. The affected area is about 56 feet below the water table.

Cleanup options include groundwater extraction, in which wells are drilled into the contaminated area.

Water pumped out would be discharged into the newer, lined portion of the landfill, which has a liquid recovery system.

That water is confined in a storage tank, then pumped to a county wastewater plant for final processing into clean water.

Pumping from the affected portion of the aquifer slows or halts the spread of the contamination, Mr. Bartles said.

Any cleanup plan must also be approved by the county’s Public Works Committee and Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division.

The county also is required to monitor the area for 30 years after the landfill is closed.

The unlined cells were closed in 1991 and 1995, respectively, and capped with a protective layer of dirt. The county’s last cell, a 15-acre lined site, was closed in 2006.

The county will finance any necessary cleanup with a reserve fund accumulated over the years by proceeds of the small per-ton surcharge on waste buried at Baker Place. The county also can apply for funds from a state-managed trust fund created for landfill remediation.

The county’s reserve fund had about $15 million when the landfill closed in 2006, Mr. Bartles said. About $3.5 million will have been spent by December in closure and capping activities, and the 30-year monitoring program is expected to cost $6 million to $7 million.

Remediation for the two unlined landfill cells has cost about $150,000 so far, and additional measures, Mr. Bartles estimated, would be in the $30,000 to $50,000 range

DECEMBER HEARINGS: Petroleum pipeline across 4 counties 1 step closer

 

By Stacy Shelton | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Alpharetta-based Colonial Pipeline has submitted applications to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to install a 44-mile petroleum pipeline across four Georgia counties.

If the EPD approves the applications, filed last week, Colonial will be able to use eminent domain to acquire easements on properties for the pipeline.

Before making its decision, EPD plans to have public hearings in early December in each of the four affected counties: Cobb, Carroll, Haralson and Paulding.

In its applications, one for each county, Colonial explained its Project ExCEL. In total, Colonial wants to install a 460-mile steel pipeline, three feet in diameter, next to two it already has between Jackson, La., and Austell. The company says the third pipeline is needed to resolve capacity limits that slow down petroleum shipments between the Gulf Coast refineries and markets in the Southeast, including Atlanta, and along the Eastern Seaboard.

Currently, the pipelines transport about 2.4 million barrels a day of petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and home heating oil. The proposed pipeline would expand capacity by about one-third, to 3.2 million barrels a day. One barrel is the equivalent of 42 gallons.

Colonial plans to begin construction of the third pipeline in the second quarter of 2011 and complete it in late 2012. The third pipeline would require a permanent 25-foot easement across 600 tracts of land owned by about 500 individuals, families and businesses.

In Cobb, Colonial wants to veer away from its current pipelines for 2.1 miles to follow a Georgia Power Co. easement and a railroad right of way, in order to avoid a densely populated area in Powder Springs. It would need to cross through three wetlands and seven waterways, according to the Cobb application.

According to Colonial, the hearings have been scheduled for the following dates and locations, each beginning at 7 p.m.

> Dec. 4 in Haralson County at the Bremen Senior Center, 425 River Circle.

> Dec. 8 in Carroll County at the Villa Rica Civic Center, 1605 Ga. 61.

> Dec. 9 in Paulding County at the Hiram Community Center, 219 Main St.

> Dec. 15 in Cobb County at the Ford Center Reception Hall at the Coach George E. Ford Cultural Arts and Community Center of Powder Springs, 4181 Atlanta St.