March 3, 2020
To: D. Nessel (MDAG), N. Gordon (MDAG), L. Clark (EGLE), M. Dolehanty (EGLE), J, Schinderle (EGLE), S. Miller (EGLE), L. Bean (EGLE), R. Nix, F. Shadko, M. Banner, S. Frush, S. Heath, M. Hermann, C. Roosen, M. Koleszar, D. Polehanki, S. Shinks, E. Pratt, T. Eggermont, B. Turnbull, K. Heise, M. Gallegher, C. Jankowski, D. Kindig (ADS), A. Testa (ADS)
Re: An Open Letter Regarding the Arbor Hills Landfill
Dear Community Leader,
Another month has passed without a corrective action plan to address the continuing environmental compliance problems at the Arbor Hills landfill. Although the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) has issued many violations to Advanced Disposal Services (ADS), they have very little leverage to force compliance when dealing with a recalcitrant company. As a result, the communities downwind of the landfill, including an Elementary School, continue to suffer from noxious odor events and unknown air emissions.
The downwind communities have heard countless promises from the numerous management teams that have operated the Arbor Hills Landfill over the past several years. Every new management team apologizes for the past and promises that things will change, but conditions have not improved. The current management team doesn’t even attempt to communicate with the community.
The Conservancy Initiative again requests the Attorney General’s office take legal actions to force the operators of the landfill to accept the corrective actions developed by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and impose penalties commensurate with the many years of noncompliance. Immediate actions are required as the Waste Management / Advanced Disposal Services merger is nearing completion. The Conservancy Initiative fears completion of this merger before the enforcement actions are finalized would present a new complication.
To help illustrate the continuing problem, and to arm community leaders with data to address the problem, The Conservancy Initiative (TCI) will continue to publish periodic reports detailing the landfill’s odor statistics. Additional statistics are available at https://www.ConservancyInitiative.org.
February 2020 Metrics
February 2020 was more of the same. Concerned residents submitted 200 valid odor complaints. (200 is actually a low month!) The complaints were submitted by 118 unique email addresses which means most did not submit multiple complaints. There were 9 complaints submitted from the Ridge Wood Elementary School, 4 days with 15 or more complaints and 6 days where no complaints were submitted.
Data is scrubbed to remove invalid complaints (this is rare), multiple complaints made from the same household on the same day, and complaints that can be attributed to other sources (e.g., Consumers Energy). The table above shows a large percentage of complainants only make one complaint per month
The number of odor complaints is trending up even after significant investments have been made at the landfill. Pdf version
Problematic days have been conservatively defined as days when 15 or more residents submit a valid odor complaint. Pdf version
Problematic days are trending up!
Please contact The Conservancy Initiative if you have any questions or would like a detailed review of this data.
Respectfully,
The Conservancy Initiative
ddrinan@TheConservancyInitiative.org