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The Conservancy Initiative has received several questions and concerns regarding the Arbor Hills Landfill recently. The most common questions/concerns are related to landfill odors. Paraphrasing, the general concern sounds something this:
I have read several stories about EPA fines and improvement actions implemented at Arbor Hills, but recently my neighbors and I have noticed odors on a regular basis? I hope The Conservancy Initiative and our community leaders understand the landfill problem hasn’t been solved yet.
The Conservancy Initiative understands the recent EPA settlement has not solved all the landfill issues. Here are just a few of the issues we continue to track:
Community odors still exist when wind conditions blow towards our neighborhoods.
Ponds at the landfill have been contaminated with PFAS since 2016 with little corrective actions.
PFAS contamination has been found in groundwater wells.
GFL was issued a violation for discharging PFAS impacted stormwater into Johnson Creek. The issue has yet to be addressed and corrected.
The Conservancy Initiative and Northville community leaders are working with EGLE to schedule a community meeting to discuss the ongoing PFAS issues. We will make an announcement as soon as a date for the public meeting has been reserved.
In this communication we will take a closer look at the odor complaint data to spotlight the increasing odor complaints and make sure that community leaders are aware the landfill may have a new owner but, in many ways, they are still the same old Arbor Hills. In a future communication we will update the PFAS issues.
Odor Complaint Data Analysis
After checking the data to remove obvious bogus odor complaints and multiple complaints made from the same household on the same day (we do these checks every month), a trend graph was produced. The number of odor complaints since GFL took possession of the landfill in October 2020 is trending up.
Where Were Odors Observed?
Next, we plotted the approximate location of the odor complaints in October 2021 to get a visual check of the location of the complaints. All 54 odor complaints were received from residents located East or Northeast of the landfill operations. A West or Southwest wind would blow landfill emissions to these locations. Most of the complaints were within 1 mile of the landfill but several were over 2 miles away.
Fig 1 - Pins are locations of odor complaints received in October 2021. A Wind direction blowing out of West or Southwest would blow landfill emissions over these neighborhoods.
What Was the Wind Direction?
We then matched the odor data to NOAA weather data recorded at Detroit Metro Airport to determine the wind direction at the time the odor complaint was made. A radar plot was made to give a visual representation of the typical wind direction during odor complaints. The radar plot shows that odor complaints are typically only made when the wind is blowing landfill emissions towards nearby neighborhoods (i.e. – wind directions of West to Southwest). Odor complaints are almost never made when the wind is blowing away from the neighborhoods.
Clearly, the landfill is the source of the odors and the fact that odor complaints are only made when the wind is blowing from the landfill towards neighborhoods indicates the odors complaints are credible.
The Conservancy Initiative does not know the cause for the increasing odors. EGLE is aware of the increasing number of odor complaints, and they continue to conduct site inspections. EGLE has reported that the odors they have observed have not yet reached a level that warrants a violation.
It is important that we provide accurate data for the EGLE to track the odors. If you smell a noxious odor please report it using the online odor reporting system. Make an Odor Report. All odor reports are immediately communicated to EGLE, community leadership, and the landfill. Odor reports can be made anonymously.