This is a summary of a meeting with Advanced Disposal Services arranged by the Northville Township Supervisor to follow-up on a sudden increase in community odor complaints. The meeting was held at the landfill on August 30th and was attended by Bob Nix, Tom Handyside and Dave Drinan from Northville Township. ADS was represented by Brian Sanders - the new landfill General Manager, Anthony Testa - Environmental Manager, Todd Whittle - ADS Regional Manager (i.e. Brian’s Boss), Deb Muchmore - ADS Public Affairs/Gov't Affairs. The ADS team reported that Mark Johnson has left the company and Brian Sanders is his permanent replacement.
We spent a lot of time talking in the office. The ADS team certainly tried to say all the right things. “They can’t fix the past but they are committed correcting things in the future…, they have fixed problems like this in other locations …., this is fixable …, this will take some time, be please be patient …, etc.” Unfortunately, none of the projects that Mark Johnson confidently announced would reduce odors during his presentation to the Northville Trustees on June 20th have been completed, even though his presentation committed to completion by now. It was very refreshing to hear Bob Nix tell ADS that they are out of time. Bob told ADS several times that the community is tired of hearing of all the great things the landfill is doing but never sees odors improve. There is no more time - ADS must fix the problem! The goal is to return to the pre-2016 performance levels of only a handful of nuisance odor complaints per year.
ADS stated they have a contractor mobilizing next week to begin working on several gas improvement projects and is expected to be working on-site for approximately 45 days. The problem is that much of this work is the projects that Mark Johnson presented to the Northville Trustees with completion dates of July and Mid-August. Mark over-promised at the trustee meeting.
After the office meeting, ADS took us on a driving tour of the landfill where we observed several project areas. Brian also pointed out their attempts to minimize odors from the working face of the landfill. A significant amount of soil has been brought to the site for both interim and daily cover. ADS has stopped using alternative (i.e. - composite) materials for cover. Additionally, while driving, Anthony and Brian noticed a defective gas well pipe connection which was venting landfill gas and immediately called for site personnel to address the situation.
Below are descriptions of each project discussed and/or observed.
1) Recent Odor Issues - ADS explained how they have found 3 gas recover wells on the north side that have lost vacuum (they cannot pull gasses out resulting in gases venting to atmosphere). These wells are horizontal wells in a newer section of the landfill that have failed (crushed, pinched, broken, etc.). The fix is to excavate into the landfill and repair the wells. We had a very quick tour of the excavation that was taking place to make the repairs. Repairs were expected to be completed by the weekend.
It was encouraging to hear ADS take ownership for the recent odor complaints. They obviously conducted an investigation and found the 3 failed wells. We stressed that they need to find ways to prevent the well failures or at least have quicker responses to the failures.
2) New Gas Extraction Wells - Beginning next week a contractor will be adding several new gas extraction wells. This is normal landfill work that is required by the landfill’s permit. The landfill performs scans of the surface at least twice a year. Areas with identified gas leaks (potential odor sources) must be addressed. Normally this means additional cover or a new gas extraction well. This work is expected to take about 1 week.
3) TSO1 sump - This is one of the projects on Mark Johnson’s list and will begin after the wells are completed. A permanent enclosed sump (should eliminate venting) is finally being installed to capture this large leachate seep (~15,000 gallons per day). It is now being captured in an open pit and transferred into portable tanks (frac tanks). ADS has started treated the leachate to reduce odors and has installed carbon filters on the tank vents to reduce odors. The treatment involves aeration and the addition of sodium hypochlorite which has proven to reduce odors in the leachate. The sump installation should take about 5 days.
The odors we smelled around TSO1 and the leachate tanks were very distinct H2S odors. Rotten eggs. These did not appear to be the odors we normally have smelled in the community the past several months.
4) West Haul Road Drainage - The storm drain along the west haul road has failed which is allowing landfill gas to leak into the storm drain system and eventually vent. The odor we smelled in this area was the rank sewer gas odor that is present in the community at times. Hopefully, the completion of this project will greatly reduce community odors.
ADS has materials on-site to replace 3400 feet of drainage pipe. The contractor believes they can complete approximately 200 feet per day. There is a likelihood of increased odors in the community as the old pipe is excavated and replaced. ADS told us they can keep us up to date on their progress.
5) High Temperature Landfill Event (HTLF) - ADS is in the process of conducting downhole testing to determine actual temperatures at different depths of the landfill. Previously, temperatures were determined based on the gas temperature being extracted from the well. Based on their test results, ADS does not believe they have a HTLF event and is using this data to convince EGLE there is not a HTLF. EGLE has been witnessing the downhole testing. ADS has no additional actions planned (beyond the downhole temperature study) to address the potential HTLF. The downhole temperature study should be completed in mid-September. We will follow-up with EGLE.
6) Leachate Treatment System - A treatment system will be installed at the main leachate tanks near the landfill entrance (Railroad tracks and Napier Rd). Components of the new system are on-site but are not yet installed. The system will include sand filters, hypochlorite addition, some sort of resin ion exchange filters (think water softener) and carbon filters which is designed to remove PFAS type contaminants. The system is designed by ERG (local consultant) and ADS promised a better explanation of the process. The main purpose of the leachate treatment system is to improve the quality of the leachate to allow ADS to reduce their disposal costs. This is not an odor control project. These improvements will be the last project the contractor works on.
We observed all that all the tank vents at the leachate storage tanks are now vented through carbon filters which is odor control action. This is a good and cheap action to reduce odors from the tanks and should have been done long ago. Anthony told us ADS will also be adding a blower to pull the vapors from the large leachate tank through a carbon filter when the leachate treatment system is installed. This should be an improvement from the current passive carbon filters.
ADS also reported they are close to an agreement with Fortistar to take over the complete management of the landfill gas collection and delivery system. Fortistar will retain the actual energy plant.
The ADS team offered our team follow-up tours at any time and will provide updates on the status of these projects.