Tonight, February 28th, the Arbor Hills Landfill caused a significant odor event which impacted several Northville Township neighborhoods but seem to impact the Northville Ridge neighborhood the hardest. The Conservancy Initiative checked the perimeter monitoring system data and sent the following email to EGLE and other local elected officials to make sure they are aware of the event and request follow-up actions.
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to: Scott Miller <millers@michigan.gov>
cc: "Kovalchick, Mike (DEQ)" <KOVALCHICKM@michigan.gov>, SenRBayer@senate.michigan.gov, JasonMorgan@house.mi.gov, Mark Abbo <mabbo@twp.northville.mi.us>, "Turnbull, Brian" <brianpturnbull@gmail.com>, Ralph Lassel <ralph.g.lassel@gmail.com>, Dave Horan <davehoran@yahoo.com>, Rajesh Mummineni <rajesh@mummineni.com>, Jenny Cordina <jennycordina@gmail.com>, Gary Schwerin <SchwerinG@michigan.gov>, Brett Coulter <CoulterB1@michigan.gov>, gary@salem-mi.org, "Theo A. Eggermont" <eggermontt@washtenaw.org>,
lytec@washtenaw.org
Scott -
The significant odor event caused by the Arbor Hills landfill tonight is an example of the type of event that must be preventable. If anyone truly believes it cannot be prevented we should never allow a landfill to be built adjacent to a residential neighborhood, especially with an elementary school.
The community has historically reported odors when they are present, but the landfill management has normally disputed the community's judgment. We now have a monitoring system on the landfill's perimeter (thank you EGLE) to validate emissions from the landfill.
Here is a short summary of what the public knows of tonight's events:
Landfill operations appeared normal throughout the day on Feb 28th. One odor complaint was made at 8:25 AM by a resident who lives very close to the landfill (this is not unusual).
Beginning at about 6:35 PM we received a steady stream of odor complaints. 35 complaints were received by 10:30 PM.
The perimeter monitoring system showed the Methane Concentrations (CH4) spiked from background levels of 2 - 4 ppm to 50 ppm at MS-2 at 7:00 PM.
A Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) reading of 12 ppb was detected at MS-2 at 7:00 PM. As you know H2S concentrations above detection levels have been very rare.
Most concerning is the perimeter monitoring system stopped updating at 7:00 PM. The odor complaints continued, but the monitoring system did not update. Was the system purposely shut down?
As we requested in our previous letter, these are the type of events that occur regularly and the public is owed an explanation. GFL should be required to report their findings to Northville Township or the Northville Landfill Working Group promptly. What happened and what is being done to prevent it from reoccurring There should be repercussions for repeat issues but we first must learn what the issue is.
In the time it has taken me to write this note, I have received 3 additional odor complaints. I am hoping for a change in the wind direction to get some relief for the residents of the Northville Ridge neighborhood.
Call me anytime to discuss.
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Regards,
David Drinan
Vice President, The Conservancy Initiative