Sunny Farms Landfill receives Ohio EPA permit for pollution-capture system

Sunny Farms Landfill, located about 4 miles south of Fostoria, Ohio, recently was granted a final air permit by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) to install equipment to control sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from the landfill flare and to continue to control hydrogen sulfide (H2S) emissions from the landfill.

The pollution-capture system is being built by the site's latest owner, Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based WIN Waste Innovations, to reduce hydrogen sulfide emissions by 98 percent, the Ohio EPA says in a news release.

"This will continue odor reduction and ensure the area meets national air quality standards," the agency says.

As reported by The Toledo Blade, these emissions were largely responsible for a sulfur-based “rotten egg smell,” which area residents complained about for years. While skeptics include some people who are continuing to post messages on a Facebook page called Sunny Farm Landfill complaint group, the frequency of complaints on a 24-hour hotline has gone down, according to Ohio EPA spokesman Dina Pierce.

Currently, the hotline is getting fewer than five complaints per month—a significant reduction from March 2019 when it had more than 500 complaints.

Ben Nutter, a former Seneca County commissioner now working for WIN Waste Innovations as Sunny Farm Landfill's community engagement manager, told The Toledo Blade that the company should be recognized for what it's done so far to turn things around and what it plans to do to make things better.

"They've invested the time, the money, and the effort to make sure that place is an environmentally safe place for the future," he said.

The new pollution-control devices will be installed over the next 18 months. Nutter told The Toledo Blade land is now being prepped for installing the scrubbers and construction is expected to begin this month.

WIN Waste Innovations is a collaboration of 10 former waste industry businesses, including Sunny Farms' former owner, Tunnel Hill Partners.