Landfill fire in Chester County burns on

The fire engines have long since disappeared from the parking lot of the Broad River Mart. With one exception, no evidence remains that the parking lot of this gas station and convenience store on Pinckney Road was the staging area for a weeklong attack on a raging landfill fire last November.

The one exception is smoke from the still-raging fire.

Firefighters from five counties worked for days with state and federal assistance to get the fire in the Bennett Landfill under control five months ago. But an underground seam of debris continues to smolder, with smoke seeping out of the landfill mound and drifting down to the Broad River Mart just outside the gate.

Store owner Gus Poulos certainly notices the persistent burning smell and the heavy smoke that hangs over the store early every morning when he opens up. The fire is bad for business, Poulos says, and bad for the health of the surrounding community.

“It’s hurt our breakfast business,” he said, because customers don’t want to come through the haze to get into the store. “They can’t stand the smoke. We put tape on the door back here to keep the smoke out of the inside, but the exhaust fan sucks it right in.”

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water were poured over the landfill after the flames erupted Nov. 2, breaking through from a buried mound of trash that could have been sparked unnoticed long before. Debris at the site is about 50 feet high and 40 feet deep. Fears of runoff from whatever material might be buried in the landfill led Poulos to have the mart’s wellwater tested, so he could post a sign ensuring patrons it was OK to drink the store’s water.

Broad River Mart employee Donna Ray said the smoke was so bad one morning, she saw two cars almost get into a wreck at the intersection of Pinckney Road and Lockhart Highway because visibility was so bad. Even worse, Ray blames the ever-present smoke for her sudden diagnosis with asthma earlier this year.

“I went to the doctor in January, and she listened to my lungs, and she listened and listened, and said, ‘I’ve never heard that before... You’ve got asthma,’ ” Ray said.

Ray now goes back to the doctor monthly for updates on her condition, but says she can’t get her insurance company to cover her prescribed inhaler medication. Poulos likewise says a doctor told him the smoke likely contributed to a sinus infection and sore throat. He now suffers from frequent coughs and a persistent nose bleed.

Since firefighters brought the surface fire under control, Broad River Mart has had an air monitor behind the store, set up by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to keep track of the material spewing from the ground in the form of smoke, along with a high chain-link fence to keep the device from being damaged. Poulos also has a large piece of farmland on the opposite side of the landfill, and he asked the DHEC inspectors to place another monitor there. So once a week, someone from DHEC comes by to collect readings from what looks like a tall space probe standing on the front lawn of a farmhouse.

“DHEC says just stay indoors as much as possible,” Poulos said, driving his pick-up across his rolling acreage. “But you don’t want to stay inside out here.”

These monitors are two of seven set up around the area either by DHEC or the federal Environmental Protection Agency to monitor air quality. Others stand beside Lockhart town hall directly across the Broad River, or in front of the local school.

Two weeks ago, Lockhart had a town council meeting with DHEC officials to discuss the landfill fire’s status, and how the town can get best keep community residents informed on the issue. Several community meetings have already been held in Lockhart in recent months to spread the word about the fire and its potential health effects. Local leaders hope to raise the issue at a Monday meeting of the Union County legislative delegation at USC Union.

“It’s terrible,” said Mayor Ailene Ashe. “The fact is, we can’t tell people not to go outside, especially now that’s it’s springtime. People are going to want to start grilling. Even if we did, they don’t realize how dangerous it is, and it’s going to get worse.”

Scott Reynolds, director of air quality analysis at DHEC, is regularly taking readings from the agency’s three air quality monitors around the area, along with data gathered from four EPA monitors that are remotely linked to the federal office in Atlanta. DHEC also shares information it collects with the EPA.

“The concentrations can change a lot,” Reynolds said. “You might have a very high concentration for an hour or two here at city hall, before the wind picks up and disperses it.”

Lockhart has come close at times to DHEC’s standard of 12 milligrams of particulates per cubic meter. At those times, Reynolds recommends residents avoid exposure as much as possible by staying indoors.

Officials and residents are most concerned about the content of those particulates. While the air monitors don’t scan for particular chemicals or toxins, the sign outside the Bennett Landfill advertises its collection of asbestos, plaster, glass and insulation materials. Health officials say so far the smoke has not shown any properties that could increase the danger to the public’s health.

“What’s burning is most likely wood, but it’s all the other stuff we’re worried about,” Reynolds said. “The asbestos will not burn, and that won’t carry off-site. The EPA has found no toxic combination of particles.”

Poulos says the firefighters “just quit” on putting out the fire completely, but local agencies have done all they can to get the fire out and federal intervention will be required to stop the smoke entirely, says Ed Darby, Chester County’s emergency planner.

“I know it’s annoying, and there are health concerns with breathing issues,” Darby said, “But what we have there now, we can’t fix. That’s why we need the federal superfunds.”

The areas where smoke is still escaping from the underground fire need to be sealed, which is potentially very expensive. The EPA will only undertake the initiative if the hazard level from the fire meets a specific threshold to merit releasing federal funds. That’s why the agency continues to monitor the air for any harmful particulates and to send out weekly updates to government agencies in the affected areas. Darby said the agency has even flown a drone over the landfill to get a better sense of the state of the fire. On March 25, DHEC published an updated community flier on the state of the landfill fire, which notes: “No levels of toxic compounds have been found that would trigger an immediate response by EPA.”

“EPA is currently evaluating findings to determine if additional federal assistance can be provided,” the flier says.

In the meantime, local agencies are working to ensure the issue stays on federal regulators’ radar. “We’re doing everything we can to not let this go away,” Darby said.

Poulos says he’s contacted state and federal lawmakers about the landfill, but feels he’s gotten the run-around. Staffers from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney’s offices have told him the fire remains a state issue, while state lawmakers have told him the EPA must get involved to end the smoke problem.

Mulvaney, an Indian Land Republican, represents South Carolina’s Fifth Congressional District.

“We don’t know who’s in charge,” Poulos said.

DHEC’s flier also lays responsibility on the landfill itself for addressing the issue. “DHEC is taking legal action to compel both the landfill permit holder and the property owner to permanently close the landfill,” it reads. “To date, the landfill permit holder has not closed the landfill or made efforts to extinguish the fire. DHEC’s pursuit of holding the landfill owner accountable for his obligations under the permit is ongoing.”

The Pinckney Road gates to the landfill remained open even after the fire, and Poulos said he saw people continuing to dump trash in the still-smoldering dump until the state chained the gate shut.

Owners of the Bennett Landfill could not be reached for comment. The number listed on the sign outside the dump’s gate on Pinckney Road is no longer in service.

This story was originally published April 11, 2015 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Landfill fire in Chester County burns on."