How bad is this?


Buried toxins resurface in fight over Washington County power plant
Opponents cite company's role in dumping
Monday, August 28, 2006

By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Described in 1979 as the largest midnight dumping scheme in state history, investigators had caught a Findlay waste-hauling company red-handed as it dumped barrels of toxic waste into a Washington County strip mine.


But rather than pursue criminal action against the Mays Corp., the mine operator and the waste generator, the state Department of Environmental Resources pressured the companies to clean up the toxic mess in Scott mine, Jefferson Township.

It's 27 years later, and not much cleanup ever occurred. As many as 4,000 barrels of hazardous waste are believed still to be buried there.

Making matters worse, DEP officials say they no longer can pinpoint where the barrels might be buried on the former mine site bordering West Virginia.

"We can't conclude the barrels are not there," said DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphreys. "We can't come to any conclusions."

But the lost barrels have resurfaced in another way -- as an issue in another controversial power plant project about 13 miles to the east in Robinson, Washington County.

Ray Bologna, president of the now defunct Bologna Coal Co., which operated the Scott mine, is seeking permission to build a power plant in Robinson to burn coal refuse at the Champion processing site, the largest refuse pile east of the Mississippi River.

But opponents of the Beech Hollow Power Plant project point to the coal company's involvement in Jefferson 27 years ago as one reason to deny him permits to build the plant, which would generate as much as 87 million tons of fly ash, a hazardous by-product of coal burning.

Battle lines are drawn.




Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette
Ray Bologna
Click photo for larger image.







"Let's talk about protecting the environment," said Cathy Lodge, a Robinson resident who co-founded Residents Against the Power Plant. "Why isn't the Scott mine cleaned up yet?"

Mr. Bologna, awaiting Robinson supervisors' decision Sept. 11 on his permits, said he wishes the so-called Mays-Bologna issue would have been resolved years ago.

"They investigated me and found out that I had nothing to do with it," he said. "But it's haunted me. Protestors bring it up all the time, and I don't think they understand the entire case. I told them to get the facts before they talk.

"I would like to see it cleared up."

DEP documents tell the tale of the midnight dumping scheme.

In 1979, a township resident alerted DER officials about illegal waste dumping at Scott mine, three rural miles southwest of the village of Eldersville.

"Midnight dumping" describes illegal waste dumping done under the cover of night.

On March 12, 1979, DER officials found one barrel cresting the surface of Bologna Coal's Scott Mine. It was enough to unravel the scheme.

During a subsequent stakeout, DER officials watched as the Mays Corp. dumped roll-off containers full of barrels into the strip mine to be covered with backfill.

Eventual tests revealed the 55-gallon drums contained polyester, amino and alkyd resins, proving that the Koppers Co. plant in South Fayette had generated the waste. State officials said strong odors emanating from the mine indicated that waste spilling from damaged drums already had contaminated some backfill.

The liquid resins included formaldehyde, styrene, xylene and various types of benzene and were considered to be toxic, hazardous and flammable, DER documents say.

But deciding against filing criminal charges against the companies, state officials opted to force the Mays Corp., Bologna Coal and Koppers to clean up the mess. Over the years, only 500 barrels were removed from the mine, eliciting debate about DER's strategy.

Under state pressure, the companies installed monitoring wells around the four-acre area where the drums were believed to be buried, and those wells continue to be used to monitor groundwater.

In January 1982 -- three years after the dump was discovered -- the DER ordered Mays Corp. and its owner, Robert Mays, to begin removing drums from the site. During a meeting, Mr. Bologna said, Mr. Mays cried and quoted Bible verses as DER officials demanded he remove the barrels.

But Mr. Mays never complied with the order, prompting the DER to suspend his hazardous waste transporter license, sending the company into bankruptcy.

Mr. Mays' whereabouts are unknown.

Lacking evidence against Mr. Bologna and noting his cooperation during the investigation, state officials never filed criminal charges against him, despite having evidence that company employees participated in the scheme. Mr. Bologna said he fired those employees.

The former Koppers Co. was ordered to participate in the cleanup but never faced sanctions.

In July 1983, Mr. Bologna signed a consent order and agreement to reclaim the Scott mine, but it specified that he delay reclaiming 10 acres where the drums were believed to be buried until after the drums were removed. The order never required him to remove the barrels.

A 1984 state document said the Mays Corp. also may have dumped barrels of hazardous waste at the Chiri strip mine in North Fayette, but it did not indicate how much.

Charles A. Duritsa, regional manager of DER's Bureau of Solid Waste Management at the time, said his office "could account for only one load of drum waste being properly disposed of [by Mays from] Jan. 1, 1978 through March 1979."

That meant as many as 4,500 drums could have been buried illegally in the Washington County mine. Documents never indicated that Mr. Mays and his company disputed DER's conclusions about the number of barrels or the location of the dump site.

For years, Mr. Duritsa and DER officials tried forcing the companies to conduct environmental assessments and remedial action, without success.

In time, under state pressure, Bologna Coal reclaimed the entire property, leaving no trace of where drums might be buried. The state released his bonds, indicating he had met all state mining requirements, he said.

As late as May 1998, a survey was conducted at the site to try locating buried drums, but it proved inconclusive. A company the DEP hired to monitor groundwater found only a spike in vanadium, indicating no serious contamination to date, DEP officials said.

Still, power-plant opponents say Robinson supervisors should consider Bologna Coal's involvement in Jefferson in deciding whether to issue him conditional use and development permits to build the power plant near routes 22 and 980.

If approved, the power plant will burn 40 million tons of coal refuse from the Champion processing site, along with coal refuse from other local gob piles.

"Have those [Jefferson Township] residents seen any justice since their community became exposed to toxins because of the irresponsibility of several individuals and a state agency?" Mrs. Lodge said.

But Mr. Bologna said he did everything DEP ever asked him to do.

"We reclaimed everything there and did monitoring, and I never heard anything else," he said. "But I was upset about it because that's a bad mark against you when you are in the mining business."

He also acknowledged the bad mark against him in connection with the power plant project.

Ms. Humphreys said the DEP has referred the Mays-Bologna case to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate and determine whether it should be placed on a federal cleanup list.

David Sternberg, spokesman for EPA's Mid-Atlantic Region in Philadelphia, said the agency will take the lead in the issue.

"Once we have the information [from DEP], we'll determine where to go from there," he said.

A DEP letter to Starvaggi Industries Inc., the Weirton, W.Va., company from whom Bologna Coal leased the property, said Starvaggi will be required to specify on the deed about potential hazardous waste contamination before the property can be sold.

"I have tried to find out if the barrels are out there, and I can't find that out from anybody," Starvaggi President Don Donell said. "I didn't know about it until after it was over.

"I'm completely upset about it and disappointed."

Unaware that the barrels never were removed from the mine site, Jefferson Township Supervisor Brady Mermon said "it's stupid on their part," referring to DEP officials.

"I think that's pretty bad they don't know where the barrels are," he said. "They should never have lost track of them."

So the dump remains a state mystery 27 years after it was discovered.

"They really were trying to piece this together and cast a wide net to get a snapshot of what happened, but it was a blurry snapshot," Ms. Humphreys said about DER and DEP action since 1979.

"There are a lot of question marks and not a lot of answers."

 

It's bad for a weak man. Prime riding for everyone else [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img].

 

Maybe they don't want atv's back there cause they are afraid what somebody might find! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

 

Sounds like the Love Canal all over again...You would think some politician would pick it up and run with it for a few more votes.