no.landfill.adv.008

A bulldozer moves trash at the Jefferson Parish Sanitary Landfill in Waggaman, La. Wednesday, July 25, 2018. The landfill on the West Bank of the Mississippi River has come under scrutiny because of horrible smells that have troubled residents on the East Bank and West Bank of the river in Jefferson Parish.

An engineering consultant told the Jefferson Parish Council on Wednesday that the landfill at the center of a long-running controversy over noxious smells in the parish continues to have a significant problem with excess water that is slowing down collection of gas from the facility.

Chris Carlson of Carlson Environmental Consultants said that the functioning of about half of the Waggaman landfill’s roughly 240 gas wells is hampered by water, and 20 percent are completely blocked.

Those wells are designed to collect the gas generated from inside the piled-up garbage and carry it to a small on-site plant before passing it on via pipeline to Cornerstone Chemical, which uses it for fuel.

The landfill’s interrelated water and gas collection systems, however, had fallen into such a state of disrepair that only about 20 percent of the gas was being collected. An unknown amount of the remaining gas was leaking into the air, and parish officials admitted it was causing at least some of the odor problems that have plagued Harahan, River Ridge and Waggaman since 2017.

According to estimates by Carlson, only about 40 percent of the recoverable gases were being collected as of April, though he said there are two important caveats to that figure. He said the landfill may not actually be generating the amount of gas that figure is based on, and he pointed out that a landfill meeting federal requirements is only required to capture about 75 percent of the gas it produces.

Nevertheless, his report seemed to run counter to statements from the parish that the landfill’s problems should largely be in hand by now.

“The odors are coming back to River Ridge,” said resident Nancy Pearson, reminding council members that the parish had said late last year that things would improve within six months.

Carlson Consultants, which completed a general assessment of the landfill last year, was hired by the parish again to study the cost of converting the landfill’s gas collection system into one that delivers high-quality gas to industrial users, much like the privately owned River Birch landfill next door.

The report estimates it would take about $8.2 million to convert the entire facility to a high-BTU gas production facility.

“I think it‘s the gold standard of gas systems,” Carlson said.

He said the section of the landfill currently accepting waste, as well as the section last closed in, should be tackled first because they produce 60 percent of the recoverable gases.

It would cost $3.5 million and take about 10 months to convert those sections to a high-BTU system. The other three sections, which are the older, long-shutdown portions of the landfill, produce less gas and would cost $1.2 million, $1.5 million and $2 million to convert. Those phases would each take seven to nine months.

While the cost of such improvements could be offset by the increased revenue a high-BTU system could generate, it could be some time before that happens.

Carlson said the landfill “still has a significant water issue” and a third of the gas wells are pulling in too much oxygen as a result. About half are pulling in too much nitrogen.

Carlson said contractors are working to drain the mounds of garbage and those efforts will be reassessed in nine months.

Mike Lockwood, the parish’s director of environmental affairs, said the report isn’t out of line with previous administration statements.

Carlson also updated the council on several improvement that have been made recently, including 16 new or re-drilled gas wells, new air pumps and five new drainage lines, which he said represented significant progress toward getting the landfill into proper working order.

“We got it to the 50-yard line; we need to make a touchdown,” Carlson said.

The contract for much of that work, held by Aptim Environmental & Infrastructure Inc., also drew criticism from residents at the meeting. The council voted to increase it from $1 million to $1.6 million to cover the cost of additional work already performed by Aptim.

“If it’s an emergency (there) should be an emergency declaration,” Pearson said, adding, “It looks like we're being taken to the bank on this thing.”

Lockwood told the council the contract allowed for additional work, approved by the parish put paid for through a cap adjustment, because of the condition of the landfill. He said state environmental regulators have not been allowing any extensions on their compliance orders.

“We need to be able to respond in an expedient and decisive manner to problems as they arise,” he said. “I think the public expects that of us, and (the state) certainly expects that of us.”

This story was changed on June 21, 2019 to correctly describe the adjustment of the Aptim contract.

Email Chad Calder at ccalder@theadvocate.com