The major fire at Cayman’s landfill (dump) known as Mount Trashmore on Friday (20) should be a wakeup call to the government on just how dangerous the situation is there.

The obnoxious clouds of smoke dropped nasty black oily soot all over our driveway and onto our patio that took gallons of water and cleaning solutions to remove.

I spent the whole day sneezing with my sinuses raging almost uncontrollably from the continuous itching from the seemingly toxic fumes that had permeated the air.

And this could have been a lot worse as the wind was actually taking most of the acrid smoke away from my house and out to sea!

“The smoke from the fire has risen and remained at high enough levels to minimize impacts on residents and the harbour, and is being carried off-shore by the prevailing winds,” a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental health said.

The ministry’s “further updates” were minimal.

There is according to the Department of Environment approximately 70,000 tons of trash dumped annually into Mount Trashmore. 0.57% of this waste are discarded tyres that equates to 395 tons!! These tyres are not shredded.

Some of these tyres caught alight and this was the reason for the black sticky soot lying on the ground. And that sticky soot is now lining my lungs as I breathed it in.

In the US despite their reuse and recycling efforts, almost one quarter of scrap tyres end up in landfills each year. Landfilling scrap tyres can cause problems due to their uneven settlement and tendency to rise to the surface, which can harm landfill covers. To minimize these problems, many states require chipping or grinding of tyres prior to disposal. Sometimes scrap tyres are also incorporated into the landfill itself as part of daily cover, or in a landfill cap.

In recent years, the placement of shredded scrap tyres in monofills—a landfill, or portion of a landfill, that is dedicated to one type of material—has become more common. Monofills may be used where no other markets are available and municipal solid waste landfills do not accept tyres. Monofills are preferable to above ground storage of tires in piles, due to fire hazards and human health hazards.

State landfill regulations:

38 states ban whole tyres from landfills.
35 states allow shredded tyres to be placed in landfills.
11 states ban all tyres from landfills.
17 states allow processed tyres to be placed into monofills.
8 states have no restrictions on placing scrap tyres in landfills.

Source: Rubber Manufacturers Association, 2003

The following are articles that illustrate we are sitting on a ticking time bomb. Something must be done now and I urge government to look at our landfill problem with the same urgency they did to producing legislation to protect the environment.

In many ways our George Town dump contributes adversely to environmental issues that also affects our health.

If you want evidence on the dangers of landfill sites read a full study written by Patrick Foss-Smith titled “Understanding landfill fires” from the WMW Waste Management World website that can be download it from its source at: http://www.waste-management-world.com/articles/print/volume-11/issue-4/Features/understanding-landfill-fires.html

Patrick Foss-Smith is a British environmental consulting engineer specializing in landfill and underground fires. The study is too long to repost here.

However the following much shorter articles also make similar points contained in Foss-Smith’s study.

Environmental Problems: Landfills

By Jared Skye From love to know green living

Landfills have led to some of the most heated, acrimonious battles over pollution in the public commons that have ever been seen. While there are a number of reasons for the vehement arguments that often surround landfills, one of the largest is the juxtaposition of both the understood need for landfills and the lack of will to live near one. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average person dumps almost 4.5 pounds of waste into landfills every single day. With the population skyrocketing across the country, these landfills will only become more of a public issue as time goes on. Despite the arguments over landfills in general, there are no arguments over the assertion that there are many things that contribute to the environmental problem of landfills.

Environmental Problems Caused by Landfills

The environmental problems caused by landfills are numerous. While there are many problems with landfills, the negative effects are most commonly placed into two distinct categories: atmospheric effects and hydrological effects. While these effects are both of equal importance, the specific factors that drive them are important to understand on an individual basis.

Atmospheric Effects

According to the EPA, the methane produced by the rotting organic matter in unmanaged landfills is 20 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat from the sun. Not only does methane get produced by the various forms of rotting organic matter that find their way into landfills, but household cleaning chemicals often make their way here as well. The mixture of chemicals like bleach and ammonia in landfills can produce toxic gases that can signfiicantly impact the quality of air in the vicinity of the landfill.

Aside from the various types of gases that can be created by these landfills, dust and other forms of non-chemical contaminants can make their way into the atmosphere. This contributes further to the air quality issue that plagues modern landfills.

Hydrological Effects

Landfills also create a toxic soup of industrial and home-cleaning chemicals. People throw away everything from industrial solvents to household cleaners in landfills, and these chemicals accumulate and mix over time. A more immediate concern is for the welfare of the wildlife that comes into contact with these chemicals, and it is not uncommon for animals to suffer inconceivably painful deaths resulting from chemical contamination.

Additional Landfill Environmental Problems

Emissions are not the only types of problems associated with landfills. A closer look can show why so many much needed changes are so difficult to come by.

Landfill Fires: Landfill gases, and the shear amount of landfill waste, can easily ignite a fire. Fires can be difficult to put out and contribute to the pollution of the air and water. They can also potentially destroy habitats nearby if not controlled soon enough. The most flammable gas that is most commonly produced by landfills is methane, which is highly combustable. Firefighters will often use a fire-retardent foam to fight fires in landfills due to the presence of chemicals that would not be subdued by water, further adding to the chemical load of these landfills.

Decomposition: Sometimes, landfills are covered with earth, seeded with grass, and transformed into recreational areas. The management of gasses coming out of these sites is a constant issue, and creates an ongoing cost despite the new facade of the landfill. Products that are natural, such as wasted fruits and vegetables, will decompose within weeks while No MOre Trash! reports that items like Styrofoam can take over a million years to decompose.

For more on this article go to:

http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Environmental_Problems:_Landfills

…..And from

We Green-USA

Landfill Problems

The two main environmental problems we face as a result of landfills are:

1.         Air pollution – emissions into atmosphere

2.         Ground Water pollution – emissions into water

Air Pollution – Emissions into Atmosphere

Landfills create a clear and obvious threat to human health as well as a threat to our environment from the hazardous contaminated air emissions emitted from the landfill biodegradation. There are over ten toxic gases released from landfills, of the most serious of which is methane. Methane gas is naturally produced during the process of decay of organic matter. As methane gas is formed, it builds up pressure and then begins to move through the soil. In a recent study of 288 landfills, off-site migration of gases, including methane, has been detected at 83% of these landfill sites. Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Studies have shown significantly reduced height among children who live near Love Canal, the chemical waste dump near Niagara Falls, NY. It has also been shown that people living close to landfills suffer from lung and heart diseases from the toxic gasses that are released from the landfill degradation.

Ground Water Pollution – Emissions into Water

The key environmental problem we face as a result of landfills is groundwater pollution from leachates (the liquid that drains or ‘leaches’ from a landfill). Although they intended to protect human beings from toxins, due to natural deterioration the protective barriers only delay the inevitable. When a new municipal landfill is proposed, advocates of the project always emphasize that “no hazardous wastes will enter the landfill”. However several studies have shown that even though municipal landfills may not legally receive “hazardous” wastes, the leachate they produce is as dangerous as leachate from hazardous waste landfills.

The major issue caused with landfill leachates is the leakage of a large number of toxins into fresh water waterways, which ultimately end up in our homes as drinking water or water for everyday use. Since landfills are most often located in and around large bodies of fresh water or in swamps, the pollution often goes undetected. The compounds submerge to the ground, to the ground water, and inevitably to our dinner tables. The pollution is also severely harmful to animal and plant life.

Groundwater contamination may result from leakage of very small amounts of leachate. TCE is a carcinogen typically found in landfill leachate. It would take less than 4 drops of TCE mixed with the water in an average swimming pool (20,000 gallons) to render the water undrinkable. Some surveys conducted have shown that 82% of the landfills have leaks and up to 41% of the landfills had a leak area of more than one square foot. EPA sponsored research shows that burying household garbage in the ground poisoned the ground water. The EPA has stressed that, even with the double liner landfills, the probability of leaking is very high.

Causes and Concerns of Landfill Increases

As the number of landfills increase the likelihood of leaks increases five-fold. The increase in trash is due to population growth and consumerism. United States population growth is equivalent or marginally lower than most middle to low-middle income developing countries but the American rate of consumption is far greater than any other developed or developing country today. The amount of waste collected in an average American house hold is far greater than that of any developed or developing country in the world today.

For more go to: http://www.wegreen-usa.org/landfill-problems.html

From epa.gov:

A tyre’s physical structure, durability, and heat-retaining characteristics make these stockpiles a potential threat to human health and the environment. The curved shape of a tyre allows rainwater to collect and creates an ideal habitat for rodents and mosquitoes.

Prone to heat retention, tyres in stockpiles also can ignite, creating tyre fires that are difficult to extinguish and can burn for months, generating unhealthy smoke and toxic oils. Illegal tyre dumping pollutes ravines, woods, deserts, and empty lots. For these reasons, most states have passed scrap tyre regulations requiring proper management.

Photo: From blog.cleaveland.com (Ohio Environmental)