Untitled It's just a matter of time before an environmental disaster occurs at this dump. There has already been an incident on December 27 when a truck backing onto a loading area broke a pipe from a storage tank containing leachate. About 300 to 400 gallons of leachate escaped, but most was recaptured in a drain on the loading pad, while the rest spilled onto the ground. Suppostedly the leachate came from a second, separate collection system that's on the surface and traps stormwater that mixes with garbage during dumping. The leachate is supposedly trucked off the site and taken to a water treatment plant.

Daily monitoring of the flow water from the leak detection and collection system (LDCS) has indicated an average discharge of approximately 5,000 gallons of water per day. The September 14 EIS on page I-4-13 predicted "The amount of groundwater seepage into the LDCS is estimated for the entire landfill development at 3,175 gallons per day (gpd) for seasonal high water and 95.5 gpd for seasonal low water." The discharge of approximately 5,000 gallons per day from Cell One is more than an order of magnitude greater than estimated in the EIS. Remember LRI has EIGHT cells planned. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how much water would have to be pumped out.

The opinion of LRI's consulting hydrogeologist is he believes that most of the water being discharged from the LDCS is accessing the LDCS system via lateral infiltration of surface water from the south of Cell One.

The Pierce County Health Department has written to LRI requesting a report on this by March 3, 2000. CROWD is requesting an independent study must be done rather than from LRI's own paid consultants. This report should include, but not be limited to, an evaluation of where the excess water is coming from and why the LDCS is not functioning as LRI predicted it would, the impact of the increased amount of water on the direction of groundwater contamination, how the increased amount of water impacts flood storage capacity on the dump site and if contamination did occur, how the landfill could handle what is apparently significantly more water in the LDCS than predicted.

Citizens need to call (253) 798-6538 or email Andy Comstock at the Health Department andy_comstock@pierce.co.wa.us and insist the Health Department do its job.

Pierce County Health Dept.