Escambia County has conducted inspections of 101 borrow pits, constructions and demolition debris pits, land clearing debris pits and landfills since July 14.

How many of the 101 have proper county permits? Seven.

Another -- Longleaf C&D Disposal Facility -- is up for renewal and Escambia County Commissioners could decide its fate this week.

On Aug. 21, commissioners will be asked to approve Longleaf’s permit renewal, which they tabled in June. Owners, Waste Management Inc., want to reopen the 40-acre facility on Longleaf Drive, but would need a solid waste management permit to come back online.

On June 3, solid waste management director Pat Johnson told commissioners that Longleaf met the criteria for a county permit. But it is under orders from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to create a groundwater remediation plan.

On Monday Florida Department Environmental protection staff met with representatives from Longleaf to discuss their proposed remedial action plan, said Brandy Smith, outreach coordinator for DEP for this district.

DEP wants more assurance that the proposed plan will work in both the short and long term, Smith said. To that end, DEP has asked the facility to install additional monitoring wells or to consider other options for addressing the source onsite.

“This would provide assurance that groundwater issues will not continue or worsen,” Smith said. The facility has until Oct. 17 to submit a RAP addendum to address the concerns.

County permit guidelines do not require that any issues with state guidelines be considered in issuing a county permit to operate. That, Johnson told his commissioners in June, would only come up when the owners applied for their state permit.

The pits and permits face scrutiny of late as commissioners consider a six-month moratorium on renewing or approving new permits for such facilities. Years of citizen concerns about the health and safety impact of these pits -- particularly those concentrated in the Wedgewood neighborhood -- are the inspiration behind the moratorium.

Longleaf’s history

Longleaf C&D Disposal Facility Inc. currently holds a solid waste permit (0253281-008-SO) from DEP to operate a construction and demolition debris disposal facility.  Groundwater monitoring is a requirement of Longleaf permit.

According to the county’s community and environment department, the seven wells (one background, four detection, one compliance, and one additional well for water level) on or near the site are monitored semi-annually.

Groundwater was last analyzed at Longleaf in June 2014.  The following inorganic compounds s were found to exceed applicable groundwater standards or cleanup target levels: aluminum (Aluminum also exceeded regulatory standards in the background), boron, iron, ammonia, total dissolved solids.

Vinyl chloride was the only organic compound found to exceed standards. Monday’s meeting with DEP was to review the plan Waste Management submitted in June 2014 to address those exceedances.

Air quality monitoring at site

In addition to groundwater, DEP requires Longleaf to monitor landfill gas using bar hole punch sampling methodology around the perimeter of the facility, county staff said.

Landfill gas is monitored quarterly for exceedances of the lower explosive limit.  Landfill gas was last analyzed at Longleaf on Aug. 8.

No exceedances have been documented at the facility.

No additional air quality monitoring is required under the DEP permit.

But Escambia County scientists in the Community & Environment Department have been monitoring the area around the Longleaf facility for measurable concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas.

Hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs, can be acutely and chronically harmful to human health.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry defines the minimum risk level for hydrogen sulfide exposure as 0.070 parts per million (ppm). To date, more than 100 air samples have been analyzed in and around the Longleaf facility for hydrogen sulfide gas, according to county staff.

Results range between 0.001 – 0.230 ppm with an overall average of 0.007 ppm. One sample, on Aug. 8, showed a concentration of 0.230 ppm; no other samples have exceeded 0.008 ppm.

On July 22, the Escambia County Health Department issued a health alert for the Wedgewood neighborhood based on levels of hydrogen sulfide found during air quality testing. The alert was rescinded on Aug. 5.

Recent countywide inspections

In the recent round of county inspections, activity was found at 36 of the 101 borrow, mining and debris pits in Escambia.

Others were found no longer in use, grassed over, not in use or doubling as retention ponds now.

County Administrator Jack Brown said the owners of record of all of them have been notified by mail of the looming moratorium, which commissioners also will discuss at the Thursday meeting.

When commissioners discussed the topic at their Aug. 12 committee meeting, Chairman Lumon May asked how many of those owners had come in to get the county permits needed.

“One,” was the stark answer from Horace Jones.

The Longleaf pit was inspected by county officials on July 16.

On June 1, 2010, Longleaf was given permission under an emergency order from DEP to act as a temporary staging area to store BP oil spill related debris. DEP allowed Longleaf to be used for waste container staging and/or transfer to disposal facility.

Containers with oil spill debris were not to be opened while there and were not to stay on site for more than 24 hours.

WANT TO GO?

Escambia County Commissioners meet at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 21 in the first floor meeting room on the Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building on Palafox Street. Read the agenda here.

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