Landfill Manager’s Notebook: Understanding Your Operations and Permit Documents

The permit you received to operate your facility was issued based on promises. Someone—probably not you—wrote out a detailed procedure of how you will operate your landfill. It may be in your operations plan that was submitted with your permit, or it may be in some other document. It could even be written in the permit itself. But no matter how it is rolled into those permitting documents, somewhere, somehow, somebody has described your operation in detail.

It may be something along the lines of, “The facility will be staffed at all times by a minimum of one supervisor, five operators, three laborers, and various supporting scale house staff.”

Well this sounds pretty good, too. Finally, these documents may go on to explain your specific operating procedures…often, in fairly good detail.

Again, this all sounds fine. So you ask, “What’s the problem?”

Well, I don’t know yet. It depends on what happens next. Is your crew doing these things? Are they following the procedures set forth in your permitting documents?

The documents say you will have a supervisor onsite at all times. But does that really mean “at all times?” Or is it, “usually…except when there is a meeting downtown,” or “usually…except when the dozer breaks down and the supervisor has to drive over to the CAT dealer to pick up some parts.”

Same problems may occur with workers—and equipment. Sure you’ve got the equipment, but is it functioning? And when you sold that old compactor in anticipation of the delivery of that new machine, the dealer told you, “Oh by the way, due to a strike at the plant, delivery is going to be held up for a few days,” so now you are running with one compactor for several weeks before the new one shows up.

These may all be workable problems—in other words you can work around them and get by; you can make it work, but the problem is: What if something happens during that time? I am talking about an accident—an injury, fatality, or some disaster where a lawsuit is filed and your name is listed under the heading: “defendant.”

After having worked as an expert witness on approximately 40 cases—most of them involving injuries or fatalities at waste facilities—I can give you a little insight on what happens. The opposing side will do a lot of research; this is called discovery. If they are good, they’ll dig deep and review every document they can put their hands on, highlighting every item within those documents that could have some bearing on the case.

Let’s suppose, for example, that a customer got run over by a garbage truck at the unloading area at the tipping pad. Tragic? Definitely. Rare? Less rare than you think.

So, what happens if this fatality occurred while a supervisor was downtown at one of those meetings?

Well, whether or not that had a direct bearing on the accident, you can bet the other side will make a big deal about that. They will say things like, “If they had just followed their own policy….” “If they had had a supervisor here, the supervisor would have seen that there was a dangerous situation that could have been prevented; it’s obviously the landfill’s fault.”

Suppose it’s October. One of your operators is sick, the other is off elk hunting, and sure enough, while you are down to only three operators—instead of the aforementioned five operators that your operations plan says you would always have onsite—an accident happens.

Did that shorthanded situation lead to the accident? Well maybe it did, and maybe it didn’t, but you can bet your lunch money that the other side is going to focus on that discrepancy. They are going to say the action happened during the busy time of day. Waste was backed up on the tipping pad, it was crowded and chaotic, trucks were looking for some place to dump the next load, folks were waiting, the line was long, and tempers were hot.

So, because the landfill was shorthanded, Driver A decided to back into position on the left side of the tipping pad and ran over Driver B who was outside folding his tarp.

Does this mean that accidents, injuries, and fatalities won’t occur if you follow your operations plan and permits exactly to the letter? Unfortunately, no. Accidents happen—that’s why they’re called accidents.

But there are usually contributing factors. And the more of those contributing factors you allow to come into alignment—like that perfect storm—the more likely it is that something bad will happen. Downstream of that, once something bad does happen, you won’t just have a liability issue, but possibly one of negligence as well. Negligence is a legal term that can indicate that you knew there was a problem you could have done something about, but you didn’t.

The equations are simple:

• Accidents = liability
• Accidents + negligence = liability on steroids

If you are not following the guidelines set forth in your operations plan and permitting documents, buddy, you’ve left the barn door wide open.

Even someone who knows nothing about landfill operations—like most of the folks who will be on the jury—will get it. You said you would have a supervisor onsite at all times—that is pretty clear. And if the question comes up “was the supervisor onsite during the time of the accident?”, and you have to answer “no,” well that’s pretty clear, too. Most people on the jury can count. They know the difference between five and three operators onsite.

You might dodge one arrow. You might dodge two. But spend enough time with an apple on your head, and sooner or later….

So, the answer is to periodically review your permit and operations plans. Review those documents that identify and list how you are going to operate your facility. Stay on top of it.

We do this regularly for clients, and we start by getting digital copies of those documents and searching for words like “shall,” “will”, “always”, and “at all times”, because those types of descriptive words often show up in sentences describing something that you should or should not do.

Make a list and include imperative in those documents. Then review that list—review it with your crew. Go through it, item by item, and ask the question: “Are we following this consistently and clearly?”

Whenever the answer is “no”, or “not always,” decide if it is something you should be doing, or something you never want to do. It is critical to have a clear picture of how you are supposed to operate.

At that point, you either have to change your action, or you have to change the document. And yes, I know there is a difference between black and white documents, and the grey world of reality at your facility. But to the best of your ability, try to get your documents and your actions to agree.

When your actions and documents agree, you’ll reduce potential liability and increase efficiency. It’s as simple as saying what you mean…and meaning what you say.