Picked this article up from the Tennessean. Interesting Read
Decison has been pushed back until Feb and interesting last few paragraphs. I dont think they have heard of MHM's Technology.
We need to get some green fund managers to run with this.
Public pressure is mounting on all fronts - Very Big future for MHM to grab the bull by the horns so to speak.
Cheers
Mt. Pleasant landfill plan ignites fears
A state proposal to let two Middle Tennessee aluminum waste processing companies build a landfill in the city limits of a small community has unleashed public complaints and highlighted the dilemma of the need to recycle more versus the noxious byproducts left by recycling itself. Two companies in Mount Pleasant 50 miles southwest of Nashville want to bury salty, aluminum-tainted leftovers that many landfill owners won't accept because of the smelly, potentially flammable ammonia that billows when the material gets wet.
City leaders had denied a previous rezoning request but recently changed their minds, with the mayor saying that the companies might leave and the community would lose jobs. The companies take in scrap ranging from soda and beer cans to auto parts from a 300-mile radius including Nashville. They say they need the landfill to continue their recycling work and cut down on costs.
The state has said it is prepared to approve a landfill permit but has extended the public comment period until Feb. 7 and is looking at questions about sinkholes on the site.
Tennessee Aluminum Processors Inc. and Smelter Service Corp., both in Mount Pleasant in Maury County, melt scrap and cans in a process that uses salt to help separate the metal, making ingots of aluminum that can be used anew in manufacturing for items such as engine pistons.
Past problems
Both companies have had environmental violations over at least two decades, which has put residents on edge about the new project.
Clark Spoden, a Nashville attorney representing the companies, said the violations are a thing of the past and that a lined, well-run landfill covered with dirt won't cause any harm.
Gases result if rain reaches exposed wastes, which often are referred to as salt cake, or if they're mixed with household or other wastes, Spoden said.
"This is the only material that will be taken there," he said of the proposed landfill. "They'll only take it there when it's not raining. The problems that others have said exist are at municipal landfills that are open 24 hours a day."
Opponents say problems also have occurred at landfills that take only aluminum processing waste and that plans to put dirt over incoming waste are far from foolproof.
They cite a state-approved landfill in Camden, Tenn., where neighbors say they have difficulty breathing at times because of ammonia. State environmental officials said Wednesday that they are investigating.
Mark Quarles, a geologist representing residents who are fighting the proposed Mount Pleasant landfill, said the 39-acre site near Hoover Mason Road is particularly risky because phosphate mining took place there decades ago. Only a portion of the test borings the companies had drilled into the ground were considered when determining the stability of the area, he said.
"If they used those others, they would have found this site is far more complex and dangerous as a landfill site," he said. "There are sinkholes on this property that are not visible on the surface because the land has been so extensively mined."
Mining for phosphate, a mineral once widely used in laundry detergents, occurred throughout parts of Maury and nearby counties, bringing jobs and money for decades. Homes have sunk into the ground and foundations have cracked in some cases where the excavated land has been built over.
One concern is how the liner, which keeps leachate and other chemical pollution from the groundwater underneath, would hold up, Quarles said. Contamination can be found in the area now from a past landfill the companies used. A small lake receives surges of salt that trickle from the old, unlined aluminum slag dump when rains come. Also, a test well near Tennessee Aluminum Processors shows trace contamination from that plant.
Officials say the liquid leachate that gathers in the proposed landfill's liner would be captured and removed for treatment and state-sanctioned disposal. "There is not a sinkhole there," Spoden said.
Years of reprimands
Over the past 20 years, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, Smelter Service has received notices of violations from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for such failures as leachate oozing from an old dump that has tainted water and killed fish. State officials have worked with the company, which put in a wetlands to act as a buffer to keep salt and other contaminants out of the lake.
Tennessee Aluminum Processors also was reprimanded repeatedly in the 1980s and 1990s over a pile of waste that grew on its property, releasing pollutants into the air and waters of Sugar Fork Creek.
State officials, however, say the companies have tried to fix the problems, making costly improvements.
For example, the hill of slag that once mounded high with about 200,000 tons of processing wastes at Tennessee Aluminum Processors has been whittled to about 20,000 tons, said Glen Pugh, program manager for the environment department's division of solid waste. It's being hauled to landfills elsewhere.
The proposed landfill ? unlike the old dump built before today's standards were set ? would require a clay buffer and a liner, which is much safer, he said.
An economic issue
The local planning board voted three years ago against rezoning the proposed site for the landfill, and the city commission followed suit. But this year, the city commission overrode the planning board and granted approval. Mayor Richard Hendrix, who had consistently opposed and voted against the rezoning in 2007, said there is more fear today that the businesses might shut down and jobs could be lost.
"The economy was different then and jobs plentiful," Hendrix said in an e-mail.
The companies together employ 225 people. Company officials say they are at a disadvantage to competitors in Waverly, Tenn., and Morgantown, Ky., that have their own landfills. The Mount Pleasant companies have to pay steep fees to have the waste hauled to Camden or elsewhere.
"They did not promise not to move this time, but plainly stated that 'with the economy as it is, who knows what we will have to do,' " Hendrix said. Hendrix said he has confidence in the safety of a new landfill, and its presence won't turn off future development.
Jennifer Graham, president of the Mount Pleasant Association Concerned Over Resources And Nature, disagrees. She thinks the landfill, which is within about a mile of scores of residences, will lower property values. "You can get the best liner in the world, yet when a sinkhole drops and there's stuff piled in the liner, it's going to bust," said Graham, a local real estate agent. The companies say they recycle from 600 million to 700 million pounds of aluminum-related leftovers a year, and that it's an important service for businesses and the environment.
Recycling is worthwhile and needed, Graham said, but it can be done so that the environment and the public do not have to pay a price that the companies should shoulder.
"There's a process in Europe they use to recycle this substance," she said. "They're using it around the globe, and we need to do that, too."
Spoden said Tennessee Aluminum set up a process in the 1990s to recycle the byproduct instead of sending it to a landfill, but the cost put it at a disadvantage because competitors stayed with the cheaper method. In much of Europe, it's required so the playing field is even, he said.
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