The Latest Landfill Concerns: Cleaning Up and Putting Out Fires

A debris fire broke out last week at the Town of Manchester Landfill and Transfer Station in Connecticut. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.

Fires can start at a landfill for a number of reasons. Some believe that there has been an increase in fires at waste and recycling facilities in recent years due to increasing average temperatures as well as increasing amounts of lithium-ion batteries entering the wastestream.

Preventing fire incidents requires keeping the facility clean and as free of dust as possible. Those operating a landfill or other waste facility also need to create an action plan in case a fire breaks out.

Another fire started last week at Bristol Hill Landfill in Oswego County, New York. This was the third fire to occur at the landfill in the past 24 months. The firefighters battled the flames for three hours while it burned, emitting thick smoke that could be seen miles away. 

"Firefighters do not know what exactly was burning and they likely will never know," writes Catie O'Toole in an article at syracuse.com.

"After they returned to their station, firefighters said they were still cleaning the fire hoses to get rid of all the garbage they had just sat in during the fire."

“It’s all garbage,” Deputy Chief Adam Howard said. “It’s all wet and moldy... it’s that bad.”

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, a school district in southern California has filed a lawsuit against two cities to pay for cleanup of an old landfill underneath the middle school. The landfill was in use for only seven years in the 1960s. The school was constructed on top of the closed landfill in 1969.

Now, the San Diego Unified School District demands the cities of La Mesa and National City to help pay for groundwater contamination assessments as well as contribute to the ongoing costs of cleanup and mitigation.

"We are very concerned about people being exposed to things that they said that they've been monitoring," said Francine Maxwell, community activist and chairwoman for Black Men and Women United.

"Climate is just so important," Maxwell remarked. "And we have a lot of climate ambassadors in the city of San Diego, but we also have people that never hear about the climate, the air the water, so we really need to educate our constituents."