CITY LANDFILLS IN COUNTY CONFORM TO MOST NEW RULES

Landfill operations in Jackson and Cape Girardeau would be affected by regulations proposed last week by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

But officials in both cities said their landfills already conform to many of the planned rules, which would take effect in two years.

The EPA proposed the rules to prevent ground-water contamination by leaky municipal solid-waste dumps. The agency sets design and operating standards for some 6,000 landfills nationwide.

The EPA estimated the landfill rules would cost about $330 million a year nationwide and would increase the cost of solid-waste disposal by about $4 per household per year.

Among key requirements, the regulations call for all landfill operators to monitor ground water around dump sites to detect leakage of contaminated seepage or "leachate" from buried waste. Roughly 25 percent of all landfills, including those at Cape Girardeau and Jackson, now have monitoring systems in place.

In addition, the new regulations would also require landfill operators to:

Cover landfills to control odors and monitor methane emissions released by decomposing trash.

Ensure that new landfills are not near airports, in ecologically valuable wetlands or in areas prone to flooding or earthquakes.

Permanently bury landfills after closure and continue ground water and methane monitoring for 30 years.

Jackson City Administrator Carl Talley said Jackson uses an old farm well in the landfill as a monitoring well to detect contamination of ground water. The city's 100-acre landfill is two miles south of the Highway 34-72 intersection.

Talley said he isn't sure at this point if the new rules will require the city to dig additional monitoring wells. "That's where the extra cost would come from ... to drill and maintain these wells because they will be there forever," he said.

"I am happy to say that ours is an A-No.-1 landfill and operation, and may be one of the best in the state," said Talley. "It is inspected frequently by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources."

Doug Kaminskey, supervisor of Cape Girardeau's solid-waste collection system, said Cape Girardeau's landfill has both ground-water and methane-gas monitoring systems. The landfill is near Highway 177, just north of the city limits.

"We've had a contract with the U.S. Geological Survey for the past couple of years for them to come into the landfill and set up monitoring wells in and along the perimeter of the landfill," he said.'

"The data collected from the ground-water and methane-gas collection wells is sent directly to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for evaluation. We've been getting quarterly inspections of the landfill and have received no reports of ground-water contamination or the presence of methane gas."

Kaminskey said the landfill is also surrounded by a leachate collection system to catch any liquid leachate that might escape from the buried refuse.

Talley and Kaminskey said the EPA rules would require each city to continue to monitor the landfills for at least 30 years after they are closed.

Talley said the Jackson landfill has an estimated life of about 20 to 30 years. That limit will no doubt increase because operators are now required by the EPA to start reducing the volume of recyclable solid-waste material coming into their landfills.

Waste vegetation such as grass clippings, leaves, wood chips and limbs no longer can be buried in landfills; neither can appliances such as stoves, washers and driers, hot-water heaters, and refrigerators.

While Cape Girardeau is preparing to start recycling of household refuse such as paper, plastic, aluminum, and glass, Talley said that is still down the road for Jackson residents.

"Until there are markets for these recycled products, it is counter-productive to try to recycle them at this time," said Talley. "If everybody started recycling these household products today, you can imagine the huge volume of products that would accumulate in six months. Right now there is no market for this volume of recyclable products.

"Recycling is good, but it's going to take good planing and development of markets to make it work."

Talley said the recent $1 increase in the tipping fee at the landfill was due to increased operating costs and the EPA and DNR rules.