On a grand SCALES
State issues largest trust fund award ever to cap DeKalb landfill
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
A Canada goose swims in a cesspool at the base of Scales landfill recently.
Leachate from the once abandoned Scales Road landfill in south DeKalb is severe, according to the Georgia EPD. 
The south face of the landfill shows there's still some work to be done growing grass so leachate does not run amok over the mountain and down the surrounding areas.
Although the site is being clean and capped today, it sat abandoned for nearly five years. 
According to the EPD, Scales contains more than 2 million tons of decaying waste.
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An almost $5 million award to clean up and properly close a south DeKalb landfill is the state’s largest ever from its trust fund, according to a program manger with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
Jeffrey W. Cown, a manager with the state’s Solid Waste Management Program, said the $4.4 million award to clean up and cap Scales Road construction and demolition landfill, is the most ever spent from the state’s Solid Waste Trust Fund.
The total cost to clean up the site is $4.9 million. The other $500,000 came from fines levied by the EPD.
The fund, established in 1990, is buoyed by a $1 fee for every new tire sold in the state and by fines levied against local governments and businesses by the EPD.
Concerned residents and community activists who fought for Scales and numerous other south DeKalb landfills in the area to close back in 2002 say they know nothing of the award to properly close Scales, which was granted in March 2007.
“I never heard about it being shut down and cleaned up,” said Stevie Banks, 43, who lives a half mile from Scales on Maddox Road south of the landfill. “It’s a good deed, but they should have never put it there to begin with. They [the owners] didn’t do things decent or right.”
The EPD’s Cown said the work is about 90 percent complete and expects contractors Cooper, Barnette and Page Inc. of Athens, recipients of the $4.9 million contract, to be finished by June.
A recent visit to the site shows the backside of the landfill still needs grass to catch contaminated water from running off the debris mountain. A Canadian goose swam in a turbid pool of green-brown muck at the base of the landfill.
Opened in 1989, Scales was scheduled to close in June 2003 but was abandoned in 2000 after its owners, Continental Technologies of Texas, filed for bankruptcy. In June 2000, the company’s chief executive officer was indicted in Texas on federal fraud, money laundering and tax evasion charges.
Without having the money to properly close the 65-acre site, which sits less than two miles northeast of Lithonia, the company allowed the massive hill of debris to stew.
After attempts by a court-appointed trustee to expand the landfill and keep it open five years longer to pay for the closure failed, the state vowed to help the county in the fall of 2002.
According to EPD records, Scales contains more than two million tons of decaying waste. Because the landfill was not properly closed, contaminated water runoff called leachate was severe, they said.
Erosion has exposed previously covered waste and there have been two fires at the site. More than 10,000 people live within two miles of landfill. Two other construction and demolition landfills – Advance Disposal, which is across the street from Scales, and BFI Waste Systems – are both less than a mile from Scales.
“Our goal was to close it down properly,” said Cown, who indicated that ground water monitoring and methane emissions must be maintained year round.
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services health consultation study, which was requested by citizen action groups, including the Unhappy Taxpayer & Voter in 2005, was completed in February 2007.
While the study concluded that the landfill was no threat to public health because residents in the area do not use ground wells, water samples from 1997-2003 showed volatile organic compounds vinyl chloride, beryllium and benzene in groundwater recorded at maximum contamination levels.
Mercury was also detected in a monitoring well at Scales that exceed acceptable levels.
Vinyl chloride, a known cause of cancer, is used to make the PVC plastic pipes and other materials. According to the Environmental Protection Agency longterm exposure to it causes a rare cancer of the liver.
Extended exposure to the metal beryllium can cause what is called chronic beryllium disease [CBD], and can occur within a few months or many years after exposure to higher than normal levels. This disease causes fatigue, weakness, night sweats and can cause difficulty in breathing and a persistent dry cough, said the EPA
But the worst of all is benezene, which according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA, can cause serious health effects and is a global health problem.
Although certain levels of benzene are found in tobacco smoke, car exhaust and gas stations, waste sites such as Scales contain much higher levels.
Breathing high levels can cause death, while low levels cause temors, confusion, drowsiness and a rapid heart beat. Benzene targets the liver, kidney, lung, heart and the brain and is known to cause DNA strand breaks and chromosomal damage, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cown of EPD said Scales was targeted for closure long before the health assessment was done. He said the main issues of closing the site properly entail draining, grading and capping the landfill.
For Viola Davis of the Unhappy Taxpayer & Voter, who just recently heard of the award to cap Scales, said the time spent protesting and speaking with the residents affected by the landfills was well worth it.
“It’s good to know all the hard work done by the community activist here in DeKalb was not in vain,” said Davis. “It feels good to know DeKalb received its just due from the Solid Waste Trust Fund.”
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