Township considering how to protect Grand River

Painesville Township trustees are considering an informal request from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to reopen a closed landfill next to the Grand River near North State Street.

The EPA is looking for the most cost effective way to dispose of 300,000 tons of fly ash, salt and kiln dust from the nearby Mentor Marsh remediation project. It will likely cost the EPA at least $2 million in trucking costs to haul the materials away.

The landfill at North State Street in Painesville Township is the closest place and one of the locations EPA is considering.

Closed in 1976, the landfill was used primarily for residential rubbish and some industrial waste. Nearly a half century later, the landfill cap has experienced natural erosion due to its proximity to the river bank.

Landfill capping is a containment process where layers of barriers, often soil or concrete, are placed above waste material in order to shield humans and the environment from the harmful effects of its contents and helps to reduce odors, keeps litter from scattering and deters scavengers.

Painesville Township Administrator Mike Manary said township officials know it is time to consider the most cost effective and environmentally safe way to remove the old, eroded cap, roughly two feet of soil, and replace it with a new cap.

The township is looking at a price tag of around $2 million to $3 million.

Taking the EPA up on its offer, the township could benefit financially from receiving the waste material from the Mentor Marsh, enough to cover the cost of a new cap plus some extra, Manary explained.

“We are going to be out there anyway,” he said. “So it makes sense because at the same time we could accept the waste from Mentor Marsh and get paid for it. Then we could do the recapping to EPA standards and we could walk away from the landfill for decades because it will be under new rules (from the EPA) and have a better cap at the river’s edge.”

Manary said that for now, this is just an informal request from the EPA, which was discussed at a recent trustee meeting.

“This just opened the door for a conversation among the trustees to see if they can come to an agreement that will help EPA with the Mentor Marsh project and will help the township with the recapping we have to do at the landfill anyway,” he said.

SUBMITTED The closed landfill located next to the Grand River near North State Street has experienced natural erosion since its closure in 1976