By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The members of the Tucker County Solid Waste Authority board heard plans to update the Landfill’s Gas Monitoring Plan. The update was part of the board’s meeting at the Landfill Office in Davis. Presiding Chair Mark Holstine provided the specifics as part of the Director’s Report.
According to Holstine, Jody Alderman has been working on the details concerning the plan. “Jody has been working on the gas monitoring plan,” Holstine said.
Alderman plans to monitor the methane produced by the landfill, in house. The measure will not only allow the landfill to have immediate access to the data, but will also save the Solid Waste Authority money by not hiring outside consultants or contractors to conduct the testing. “Jody is going to be doing that himself instead of paying a consultant or anybody to do gas monitoring,” Holstine said.
The Landfill does not have a current Gas Monitoring Plan, according to Holstine. “Nowhere, anywhere could be find an approved gas monitoring plan,” Holstine said.
Holstine said there is a plan for the Landfill, but it is extremely old. So old, in fact, that buildings have been constructed at the site since it was first put into place, according to Holstine. “We have a plan out there. Its old, old, old,” Holstine said. “And we know the points they were testing, but it is so old that we have structures on site that have been built since that plan started.”
Holstine said he and Alderman are committed to bringing the plan up to date. “We are going to bring the plan up to date,” Holstine said.
Alderman has already purchased the equipment to complete the tests and will be submitting the results to the Department of Environmental Protection, Holsine said. “Jody has bought a monitoring tool to do it with,” Holstine said. “He’s going to do it and submit those on a quarterly basis to the DEP.”
The purpose of the plan, according to Holstine, is to monitor what kinds of methane are moving within the landfill and to make sure no methane is leaching into buildings at the site, as well as ensuring the gasses are contained at the landfill site. “Its to see what kind of methane is migrating on site or off site,” Holstine said. “You need to check your structures to make sure gas is not finding its way into your buildings to become a hazard and then you check around the perimeter to make sure we don’t have any migration out.”
The next meeting of the Tucker County Solid Waste Authority will be held on February 26 at 3 p.m. at the T.C.S.W.A Office located at 284 Landfill Road in Davis.