BAKERSFIELD,CALIFORNIA
Chemical Waste Management buried chemicals for almost a year in this
dump before officials noticed that the dump had no wells to detect water
pollution. It takes the state nearly two years to get CWM to put in Wells
and run tests.
April 1984
Goldwater tests show contamination. CWM blames the former owner of
the landfall.
May 1985
CWM closes the Bakersfield dump air the county government rejects an
expansion permit request.
June 1985
Runoff from the site continues to flow into a stream that feeds a
groundwater recharge zone and provides water for agriculture. In
spections reveal groundwater degradation from the facility' s south
western area. (33$ CWM representative Paul Abernathy acknowledges
that its wastes commingled with the previous operators wastes in unlined
ponds.)
FLORIDA FORT MEYERS
1986
Cadmium is detected at levels five times over regulatory limits in
groundwater beneath the WMI Gulf Coast Sanitary Landfill in Ft. Myers,
Florida.
1987
A study by WMI confirms possible contamination of groundwater beneath the
landfill. HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY
May 1988
WMI illegally disposes infectious waste in the Northwest Disposal landfill.
1990
The Tampa Tribunereports that the law firm that recommended against
Hillsborough County suing WMI, the designer and builder of Hillsborough
Heights landfill, was representing WMI at the same time. County commissioners
, who voted not to sue WMI in June of 1989, reportedly never were shown a
memorandum by independent consultants hired by the county that gave strong
evidence linking WMI and the landfill to contaminants found in nearly wells.
David Dee, a lawyer for Carlton Fields, Ward, Emmanuel, Smith & Cutler, was
representing a WMI affiliate in Broward County in 2986 when Hillsborough
County commissioners hired him to take their case.
Jake Varn, now a partner in Carlton & Fields, was the Department of
Environmental Regulation (DER) secretary who approved the Hillsborough
Heights landfill permit in 1980.
Dee said the county knew he was representing WMI when they hired him and that
his original contract stipulated that he would represent the county before
various state and federal agencies, but that he would take no part in
litigation against WMI. A county commissioner who made the original motion
to hire Dee said the county was not aware that it eventually might have to
sue WMI when it hired Dee.
Jacksonville, Florida
Six families are notified by the EPA that they have to relocate because of
toxic wastes generated by the U.S.Navy and dumped in the nearby Hipps Road
landfill by Waste Control of Florida, Inc. Waste Control was bought by WMI or the dumping.
WMI later accepts responsibility for the dumping and pays $530,000 to buy out
and relocate six families.
1987
One hundred and forty-one Hipps bad neighbors file a $436 million lawsuit
against WMI and other haulers for physical, financial, and emotional
damages.
1990
The dump remains closed. MEDLEY FLORIDA
1980-WMI buys the Medley garbage landfill.
February 1981-WMX is cited for illegally dumping trash into a lake on the property.
1984-Tests indicate the migration of pollutants into the groundwater.
1987-A Florida state report claims that the Medley dump threatens the
community's water supply. WMI says the dump ''has a minor impact on
the environment. POMPANO BEACH, FLORIDA
Pompano Beach is host to one of Mrs oldest landfalls. Groundwater
tests have detected pollution from the Broward County dump since 1981.
Tests taken in January 1986 detected pollutants 113 feet below the
landfall. The garbage dump remains open.
1974-
The Pompano Beach landfill is cited for operating a water pollution
source without a proper permit and for dumping rubbish improperly.
1975-WMI is cited for improperly discharging polluted water into a canal.
WMI officials till a state insider that leaking Es of chemicals were
a ''common occurrence'' at the Pompano Beach site.
1980-Inspectors are startled to discover bags of infectious hospital waste at the
landfall. The waste is supposed to be burned or sterilized before being
sent to a 1=+1. Alleging that WMI dumped the bags illegally, the state
ones %1 $2.2 million for improperly handling infectious hospital waste.
The annually is reduced to $423 two years later.
1987-The state of Florida penalizes WMI $4,000 for numerous violations at
Pompano Beach, including improper handling of hic chemicals.
1990-The Pompano Beach landfall remains open. ANTIOCH, ILLINOIS
Antioch Village officials complain that WMI has refused to let the village
test liquid samples from the bottom of its landfall. The village has successfully
blocked attempts by the company to expand the landfill. ''They make millions
of dollars a year, and we're left with a bleeding sore,'' Ken- neth Clark,
a pastime village attorney says. ''A local government can stop them it's
willing to pay a quarter of a million dollars.
Witnesses, including a member of the local police department, come forward at
one hearing to testify that they have seen trucks carrying 55-gallon drums
enter aud leave the site in the middle of the night when the dump was unposed to be closed.
February 1990
WMI's 52-acre landfill is declared a priority site by the EPA for cleanup
under the Superfund program. EPA tests have found zinc, lead, and cadmium in
monitoring Wells near the dump. Wells as close as 600 feet from the dump
supply people in Antioch with drinking water. EAST NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANNA
In 1988, American Waste, the New Orleans WMI subsidiary, lost its contract
with the city of New Orleans when it expired.
One factor was the Recovery landfill in New Orleans East.
Recovery l opened as a ''state-of- the-art recychng, garbage-shredding, and
incineration center.''
Plagued by constant technical problems, the site was deserted and, according
to the J'rogressiue, American Waste refused to clean it up. MONROE LOUISANNA
In 1986, WMI's subsidiary American Waste Pollution Control Company (AWPCC)
paid an $8,000 penalty for failing to cover laurelled wastes with dirt and
for contaminating the surface water at its Magnolia Sanitary Landfill.
In 1987, a state inspection found violations of record keeping, gas
management, and leachate management, plus insuffi- cient monitoring of
incoming wastes. WMI/AWPCC later paid $11,000 in penalties. WALKER LOUISANNA
WMI/AWPCC have been charged for various operational violations at the Waside
landfill, including record-keeping violations, geological problems, and
migrations made without prior approval. Although compliance orders have been
issued to the landfill, Greenpeace is unaware of any fines levied by the
state.
The landfill has been banned from receiving out-of-parish industrial waste. LOUISANNA GENERAL
WMI or its subsidiaries have been charged with violating numerous
regulations in the state, including discharging contaminated wastewater
from a track wash, having inadequate training and contingency plans,
beginning construction activities for a proposed expansion without prior
approval (Kelven landfall in Avondale and Woodside land-landfill in Walker),
inadequate soil covering, allowing contaminated water to Mofrinto a
buyer zone, and inadequate maintenance of rollofcurbs. CANTON MICHIGAN
March 1983-Michigan Waste Systems, enc. (MSWO, a WMI subsidiary, closes its
Wadland Meadows landfill under a consent judgment and order.
July 1984-EPA charges MWSA with groundwater monitoring violations. MWSI
failed to obtain samples from downgrading groundwater monitoring
wells after MWSI notified EPA that the landfill ''may be affecting
groundwater quality''
June 1987-EPA ands unapproved waste piles resulting from the installation of
a gas recovery system. MWSI agrees to pay a $27,000 civil annually. BORDENTOWN, NEW JERSEY
WMI has been charged on numerous occasions with environmental violations at
this site. According to the Philadelphia Zmgufrer, two workers were killed at
the landfill when the ls-foot-deep trench they were working in collapsed during construction.
An OSHA area director said that precautions OSHA had required for construction to continue after an
inspection had not been taken, such as the use of lumber to reinforce the
sides of the trench. PARKLANDS LANDFILL, NEW JERSEY
1985-A WMI subsidiary agrees to install an air conditioning unit at a local high
school in a $150,000 settlement over problems with odors.
1988-A further settlement of $23,800 is reached for violations of odor regulations. FRANKFORT NEW YORK
May 1985
WMI's subsidiary SCA, owner of the Mohawk Valley landfill, pays a
$6,000 penalty for unpermitted discharging of leachate into a stream and
expanding without a liner.
December 1985
WMI pays a $1,500 civil penalty for accepting unauthorized waste.
1988 The state charges WMI/SCA with groundwater contamination. NORTHWOOD OHIO
1983- CMW dumps hazardous Surround waste in two WMbowned garbage dumps where
the company as not authorized to receive Superfund waste.
1983-Ohio Waste Systems, Inc. (0WS), a subsidiary ofMl, pays $3,000 for
failure to adequately implement a groundwater monitored program and other
violations.
January 1988-OWS pays $6,000 for violating manifest regulations and failure
to provide an adequate groundwater assessment plan. BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
In 1988, WMI bought 260 acres Jlaud in Falls Township, adjacent to the WMI
Geological Inclination. Operations and Waste Systems, Inc. (GROWS) landfill,
which the company has operated since 1970. The site also orders land owned by
USX, the steel giant. The site is zoned for heavy industry, but located on
wetlands.
WMI hopes to dump up to 2.9 million tons of garbage and ash each year in the
expandedlaxdfm. Currently, nth landfalls take trash from Philadelphia.
Hundreds of thousands of tons of incinerator ash from Philadelphia has been
dumped in Bucks county. <1 also approached of- ficials in New Jersey about
disposing their sewer sludge at GROWS. (WMI would also like to build a
Wheelabrator incinerator on the new property, which it expects to operate by
January 1993
1981- 1988
GROWS, Inc. is charged on several occasions with unlawful discharge of
liquid waste, including leachate, to a nearby stream. Other charges
include violations of air quality regulations, failure to control dust from
truck track, failure to control erosion, and improper manifests for hazardous waste hauling.
August 1989
To Philadelphia Inquirer reveals that cl's local payroll includes several
relatives of Falls and Tullytown offcials charged with overseeing
trash operations at the company s two landfalls. The payroll includes
relatives of town supervisors who participated in key votes regarding WMI.
September 1989
Bucks County commissioners ask ever for libers Casey to declare a
moratorium on the permit process for a proposed lsjoo-ton-a-day ash
landfillll. While the county was aware that WMI had an application, they
were never informed that the land-landfill would serve as a regional
depository.
I think we got snookered,'' says county commissioner Lucille
Trench, who found the discovery particularly disturbing because Frank Be
J. Branigan, who sits on the county's solid waste advisory committee,
never informed the committee or commissioners that he was a WMI consultant.
Another committee member, Harry Fawkes, Jr., is the son
of a Republican Party county chairman who sold his trash company to
WMI a year ago
April 1990
Falls Township orchis approve the landfill plan., despite questions by
one township supervisor abut siting the ash landfall m a wetlands area.
Allegations surface that the Falls Township chairwoman Holly Moyer,
who cast the deciding vote, has two brothers employed by WMI.
October 1990
In Bucks County, ''the writing's on the wall,'' says Ed Vile, a small hauler
competing with WMI for business. ''You don't have to be very smart to
see what's happening. Once the mom and pop haulers are gone, you're
left with these big companies. And the consumer will get raped with
higher rates.
The fee at waste management's GROWS landfill in Bucks County exemplifies what
is happening across the nation' the Philadelphia Inquirer
reads. ''in 1982, the dumping fee at the landing in Falls Township was
$6.30 a ton, according to the Bucks Count! plug commission. Today
it is $59, an increase of 937 percent over eight years''
Independents like Gibson am straggling to pay landfill owners. But
large companies such as Waste Management own both hauling companies
and landfalls, so the money changes hands but stays in the corporate
family.''
July 1991
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources denies Mrs
application for a szb acre ash landfill in ('Falls a Township. The application
is denied because the site is located in a 100-year floodplain. POTTSTOWN PENNSYLVANIA
Problems with the operation of this frankly extend before WMI took over SCA
Services (SCA) in 1984 and have continued since. For instance, in October of
1985, a leachate tank overflowed during a hurricane, and asbestos waste was
dumped improperly. In 1987, the landfill was cited for fille to comply with
reported requirements of the state's drinking water regulations.
PARIS WISCONSIN
1979-WMI of Wisconsin acquires a landfill from Kenosha Trucking Co.
for $1.4 million.
March 1980-The town of Paris brings a lawsuit against the Wisconsin
Department of Natural 'sources (WDNR) to prevent approval of an expansion
proposal on the basis of the WDn's failure to properly notify residents.
June 1980-PCBS at a concentration of 36 parts per million are detected in
leachate at the site by an engineering consultant hired be the town.
Opponents to the expansion also claim the site is located m a wetland area
that is home to muskrat, mink, and great blue herons. Surface water from the
site runs officio the Des Plaines River.
1983-WMI agrees to pay the Q)R of Paris at least $80,000 annually to operate
the landfIll, in eject reducing the town's opposition to further expansion on the 500-p1us acre site.
Neighbors consistently complain that odors and dust harm their businesses and
impact their health.
1990-John Callahan, operator of a nearby body shop, tells a Chicago reporter
that the stench in the area around the landfall can be so strong that
''at 6:30 in (hp morning it wakes you up.'' Owners of a nearby bar close
their business and (ne suit against <1 for trespassing, nuisance, and
negligence. Paris Township collected $220,000 in licensing fees from WMI in
1989.
