Arrowhead Landfill owner pays fine, signs consent order with ADEM

The owner of a solid waste landfill in Perry County has signed a consent order with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and paid a $30,600 fine for violating ADEM rules. 

Perry County Associates, LLC, the owners of Arrowhead Landfill, said even though they signed the consent order, the company “neither admits nor denies” violations found by ADEM personnel when they inspected the site several times last spring. 

According to the consent order, ADEM personnel conducted a site visit at the Arrowhead Landfill on March 1 and 2 and found a number of violations, including: 

• Failure to provide six inches of compacted earth or alternative cover material to be added to the conclusion of each day’s operation

• Failure to follow requirement to always be confined to as small of an area as possible, within a single working face
• Failure to re-apply cover to comply with minimum cover requirements In the event that erosion develops on previously covered disposal areas, or when covered waste otherwise becomes exposed
• Failure to comply with the requirement that the landfill be operated as stipulated in its permit and Arrowhead Landfill states that the facility should be operated and maintained to minimize the possibility of any unplanned sudden or non-sudden release of contaminants (including leachate) to air, soil, groundwater, or surface water
• Failure that the landfill should be operated as stipulated in the permit and the Arrowhead Landfill permit states that the ASR should not be used on exterior landfill slopes

On follow-up visits on March 21 and March 25, ADEM personnel found that the operator had not addressed most of the issues found earlier that month. ADEM personnel documented that the violations had been addressed when the visited the site on April 11, and no additional issues were stated to have been noted during the visit. An additional inspection on June 30 also found no issues.

PCA said that equipment failures prevented them from properly covering the waste, and intense storms in March washed some of the cover away. PCA said it resolved the issues ADEM found on March 1 within 24 days. The operator said it has acquired backup equipment to prevent further issues.