Herald Palladium: Putting down a stink

Far below, along a ridge, large trucks are winding up the path to where they dump their garbage. They are dwarfed by huge portable fences used to contain the blowing trash.

The dump site appears like a tiny speck in relation to the overall property.

The trucks back into a hydraulic lift that brings them almost vertical, enabling them to easily dump out the trash.

A few landfill employees dot the landscape, picking up any stray debris or checking on the many gas wells that capture the landfill gas and send them along to the landfill’s electrical generating station. The power plant generates enough electricity to power 2,000 homes.

At the end of a work day, the new trash is either covered up with soil or sprayed with a liquid mixture of Portland cement and bentonite, an absorbent clay. The spray turns the garbage gray, but keeps it from blowing around and reduces the odors.

Far in the background, in the roughly 1,000 acres of buffer for the landfill, farmers work the rented fields.

Despite its simple purpose, the daily operations of the landfill are very complex – and heavily regulated.

Pressure to be neighborly

The landfill, owned by Landfill Management of Kalamazoo, opened in 1976.

Over the years, it gained a bad reputation for garbage odors wafting into the neighboring communities of Watervliet and Coloma.

When Bill Smith of Coloma rejoined the City Commission a few years ago, he made the landfill odors a major issue. Nearly every month, he would appeal to residents to report any odor problems.

State Rep. Al Pscholka, R-Stevensville, then stepped in to help. He organized a series of town meetings in Coloma regarding the landfill odors, the last one in June.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, during a random site inspection earlier this year, determined that some of the day’s waste had not been properly covered and fined the landfill $4,500.

Now, Pscholka has introduced a new state law that would increase the fines on landfills from the state Department of Environmental Quality. The new fines would be $25,000 for a first violation and $75,000 for subsequent violations. The bill made it out of committee last month and is awaiting a House vote later this year.

The landfill appears to be responding to the community and state efforts, Pscholka said.

“I think we’ve seen some progress. We’ve noted that the level of complaints has gone down,” he said.

But the effort is far from over, he stressed.

“I’m cautiously optimistic. At the last town hall meeting some said they had given up complaining. We really do need people to continue to report. It’s something we have to continue to monitor. We’ve got to be vigilant. It’s a quality of life issue for a lot of these folks.”

Things change for better

Smith is now the Coloma area representative on the Berrien County Board of Commissioners, and recently took a tour of the landfill.

He was impressed.

Odor reports are way down from just a couple of years ago, he said.

“It’s taken a lot of work on the community’s part to get involved. The key to it is getting people involved and report it.”

He offered up two anecdotes he recalled from several years ago related to odors from the landfill.

He overheard some out-of-towners at the Coloma McDonald’s restaurant talking about the landfill.

“They were saying, wow, this is a stinky place. Let’s get out of here,” he said.

One another occasion, the issue became even more personal when his children were visiting for the holidays.

“My daughter was walking her puppy about every half hour. Then she said, dad, I just can’t stand it here. I gotta go.

“The entire community is getting involved. We have made some progress. It has improved.

“It’s been a slow, steady process. There’s no doubt public pressure helped move it along quicker. They’re doing more and more. We are very happy that progress has been made.”

Read the full story on The Herald Palladium’s website.