TucsonSunset

So the anniversary came and went.  I didn't see any stories on the TV or in the paper.  Tomorrow is the anniversary of the funeral.  Dedicate a moment of peace.  A moment without anger and bitterness.  Keep Billy and those who survived the tragedy in your thoughts.

So the anniversary came and went.  I didn't see any stories on the TV or in the paper.  Tomorrow is the anniversary of the funeral.  Dedicate a moment of peace.  A moment without anger and bitterness.  Keep Billy and those who survived the tragedy in your thoughts.

So the anniversary came and went.  I didn't see any stories on the TV or in the paper.  Tomorrow is the anniversary of the funeral.  Dedicate a moment of peace.  A moment without anger and bitterness.  Keep Billy and those who survived the tragedy in your thoughts.

So the anniversary came and went.  I didn't see any stories on the TV or in the paper.  Tomorrow is the anniversary of the funeral.  Dedicate a moment of peace.  A moment without anger and bitterness.  Keep Billy and those who survived the tragedy in your thoughts.

So the anniversary came and went.  I didn't see any stories on the TV or in the paper.  Tomorrow is the anniversary of the funeral.  Dedicate a moment of peace.  A moment without anger and bitterness.  Keep Billy and those who survived the tragedy in your thoughts.

The anniversary is next week (Feb 8).  How many people will remember this event vs groundhog day?  For those involved in the disaster, its a groundhog day from hell, over and over.

Issues that I believe led to that disaster are a hot topic in the industry right now, and I specifically mention that example, along with others, multiple times per week.  It's a hard issue to get around because so much money is involved, but that's another reason I wished this story had gotten national attention. The onus shouldn't lie completely with the landfills, the generators should bear the responsibility as well. Certain generators do, are very conscientious of what materials are used to solidify their liquids and the sustainability of those materials in a landfill. A certain national convenience store chain, for example, won't do business with generators that solidify with the polymers I hate. They will spend the extra money to go to a generator that uses materials that behave more like cement. If all generators felt that way, or were regulated to work that way, then landfills would be safer. No doubt that mistakes are made on both sides, but as long as a blind eye is turned, nothing will change, and it will just be a matter of time until the next one

The anniversary is next week (Feb 8).  How many people will remember this event vs groundhog day?  For those involved in the disaster, its a groundhog day from hell, over and over.

The anniversary is next week (Feb 8).  How many people will remember this event vs groundhog day?  For those involved in the disaster, its a groundhog day from hell, over and over.

The anniversary is next week (Feb 8).  How many people will remember this event vs groundhog day?  For those involved in the disaster, its a groundhog day from hell, over and over.

I sat through a very lengthy conference call this morning. The hammer is being dropped from on high about the volumes of wet waste accepted. There is a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth because the reduction in revenue will cost a lot of people a significant portion of their bonus. It will cost me personally several thousand dollars if the revenue isn't made up with something else. Good
A certain incident north of me was specifically referenced. The good news is certain companies are paying attention and reacting. The bad news is that it isn't a federal law, it's a voluntary business practice. When we turn it away, it will have to go somewhere...

Its quite believable, sadly. 

From what I hear this story is not over. The last I heard DEP had another driller in taking samples. I wanted to post today because I actually met with one of our sludge producers this week for the first time at their facility, and I have a better understanding of where it comes from, how it is solidified, and why certain materials have to be used. This will be kind of a long and boring post, but for anyone wondering what sludge actually is I will try and explain it.
Wastewater treatment sludge is easy to visualize, it's just whatever settles to the bottom of a treatment pond, and it makes up about 40% of our sludge intake. The rest is classified as "industrial sludge", so in my mind it was coming from the back end of a plant as the sludge I see. I asked our hauler if he would give me a tour of the facility, because we have to work with each other on haul times so I'm not bombarded with more than I can handle in a short period of time. Sometimes this puts our hauler in a bind, so I wanted to see what he was up against. I was surprised to learn that his facility isn't producing the sludge, he is taking liquid waste from all kinds of industry, solidifying it, then sending it to the landfill. When I say liquid waste, I mean almost any liquid you can think of. Oil, ammonia, shampoo, milk, all different kinds of liquid chemicals. He said almost every manufacturing process produces liquid waste on some level. His facility receives these liquids and what can be recycled, like oil, is recycled. All other liquids are hauled in tankers, or in 50-100 gallon totes. These liquids are dumped into a "solidification pit", a concrete lined pit about 15ftx15ftx10ft deep. The next step is to add a binding agent, and this is where the dangers of sludge in a landfill begin. Sawdust is commonly used, and I love it, but the problem with using sawdust is it doesn't totally bind the liquid. If only sawdust was used, the trucks would leak from the facility all the way to the landfill, about 45 miles away, so other binding agents have to be added. One option is a cottony looking material that soaks up the liquids, and that works for me because the liquid is squeezed back out in the landfill by the weight of the equipment and the weight of the trash stacked on top of it. Picture it like a saturated sponge. The problem there is you still risk trucks leaking en route, so another agent they use is binding polymers, basically powders that lock the liquids. This is the stuff that makes sludge so hard to handle, so dangerous if it isn't mixed properly. The very thing that makes it safe to haul is what makes it dangerous in a landfill. It's not like a sponge, it doesn't release the water. It never dries and stabilizes, and if too much is placed in one area it makes an impervious layer that will trap other liquids either above or under that layer, creating those invisible underground ponds that I've described before.
This is why I want the story of Greentree to come out. If it is proven that sludge was responsible for that collapse, the waste industry needs to take a long look at what it is, and what it is doing to us. Liquid waste will always be generated, and it has to go somewhere. Modern landfills are the best option we have at this time, but the workers in those landfills have to be protected. When "wet waste" studies are done, they are done by engineers, and those results are shared with upper management. The field operators are not brought in to the discussion. Things that look good on paper don't necessarily translate to good practice in the field. One of my engineers came to me after one of those studies, excited to tell me they had proven that the "moisture retention capabilities" of the polymers were very high. To the people watching the bottom line, what that means is less leachate generation, less liquid at the bottom of the landfill that has to be hauled off and treated. An engineer doesn't think about what this waste that never dries does to the surfaces we work on every day, and how those initial savings in leachate generation turn into expense exponentially for years and years after the waste is dumped. You have to dig up bad areas and repair them, you have slides that if not repaired turn into exactly what happened at Greentree. You have odor issues because of gas migration, and lawsuits have been settled for millions of dollars with neighboring communities. The biggest issue of all is the instability it causes, and the dangerous conditions employees have to work in if it is not handled properly. There needs to be a national discussion about how this liquid waste can be safely disposed of. You can't dump free liquids in a landfill, so it will always have to be solidified in some fashion. I want the industry, regardless of the company you work for, to take a look at this issue and make common sense decisions that include input from the people that actually have to handle this material. It can't be fixed by a spreadsheet.
If the Greentree collapse doesn't get everyone's attention, then nothing will. If it is swept under the rug and disappears quietly, it will happen again

Supports my point.  Don't you think?  Matt Gabler represents Elk County and I don't recall any statements from him either.  If I'm wrong I apologize in advance for throwing Matt under the bus..

BINGO!

Joe Scarnati is currently the President pro tempore of the Pennsylvania State Senate. He is originally from Brockway and I don't remember seeing where he made any statements about the accident.
 

We pay for OSHA, but I don't expect them or any other agency to prevent all deaths no more than an alarm on a resident will keep them from falling or being strangled in a bedrail. I hope their is a monetary judgement.  I hope that the people who were negligent are fired and face criminal charges.   Nevertheless, garbage will continue to be collected and disposed of, and accidents like this will continue to happen as long as the financial punishments are so embarrassingly small.  

Ok, so define that procedure? If I wanted to floor in an entire cell with sludge, there is nothing but common sense stopping me from doing that. What percentage of sludge is too much to maintain a stable working face? How many tons of trash have to be available to mix with X amount of sludge? What do you do when it's raining and the sludge coming in doubles? What do you do when you are sliver filling an outside slope, where you can't put sludge?
The simple answer to all of those questions is to set a limit on how much you can take, but when a government office makes a vague statement about "improper handling" after a fatality, then there is nothing these companies will change. They can just point at Greentree and say "They handled it wrong, won't happen to us".
I'm just so disgusted by all of this, I thought it may bring about change, but it looks like it won't happen

I just saw on WJAC that tomorrow night there will be a special report on the landfill collapse.

We pay for OSHA, but I don't expect them or any other agency to prevent all deaths no more than an alarm on a resident will keep them from falling or being strangled in a bedrail. I hope their is a monetary judgement.  I hope that the people who were negligent are fired and face criminal charges.   Nevertheless, garbage will continue to be collected and disposed of, and accidents like this will continue to happen as long as the financial punishments are so embarrassingly small.  

Heavy on the DooB ....

As I said earlier, its time to unleash the lawyers.  Mr. Pierce died from AD negligence, and we should forget anyone one else who was injured in the accident.  

As I said earlier, its time to unleash the lawyers.  Mr. Pierce died from AD negligence, and we should forget anyone one else who was injured in the accident.  

I know some are upset by it only being a $12k fine, but please remember that fine is only what is being paid to a government agency.  That is not intended to place a dollar value on the life lost.  Hopefully this will set a precedent so that it doesn't happen again and that Mr. Pierce's family is able to pursue a settlement that will allow them to at least be a little more comfortable while they attempt to heal their hearts from their tragic loss. 

So it should be under one month now until they conclude the investigation.