Trash trains bring stench, misery to Ky. county

• About 90 percent of more than 1 million tons of Big Run waste a year comes from out of state.
• Local officials say they can't impede interstate commerce.
• Experts say the county has tools to use to control flow of the waste.
• Citizens want odors to stop; operator promises action.

Whether it's a Big Mac wrapper in New Jersey or a flushed toilet in Manhattan, there's a chance that waste will end up in a Kentucky dump, carried there by a "trash train."

The Big Run mega-landfill outside Ashland was intended to be a cash cow for Boyd County, with between 80 and 90 percent of its waste coming from out of state. But it has become a stench-ridden horror for Boyd County residents, a headache for local politicians and a challenge for state regulators, who consider it the most troubled landfill in Kentucky.

"We don't have anything (else) of this magnitude," said Tony Hatton, director of the Kentucky Division of Waste Management. "They can't continue the way it is. The odor issues coming off the landfill are really significant, and I mean significant."

Big Run has grown to be Kentucky's largest landfill, and one of the busiest in the Eastern United States, accepting more than 3,500 tons of waste a day, about the equivalent of more than 300 garbage trucks, according to Kentucky regulators. It had a massive "trashslide" in 2013 and has racked up nearly 1,000 odor complaints and about 30 violations in the last two years.

Now, key deadlines are approaching that could determine the future of the decade-old landfill, with widespread agreement that the whole situation quite literally stinks.

"We're basically the trash can for every other county on the East Coast right now," said Sean Borts, an Ashland resident and the medical director for Regional Endocrine Diabetes Associates there.

The smells have been unbearable, he said, making student athletes at nearby Boyd County High School sick, while turning other students into citizen scientists armed with odor detection devices. Borts has noticed the stench "coming into my house weekly, and I live seven and a half miles away."

In addition to dump odors, the rail cars also reek, said Boyd County Judge Executive Steve Towler.

"If they are parked for 10 minutes anywhere, people don't like it," Towler said, acknowledging the dump has "aggravated a lot of people."

It doesn't help, he said, that so much of the waste comes from communities so far away.

The resentments are similar to those expressed in Kentucky 25 years ago that led to reforms of state law giving counties more control over waste flowing into their communities — tools that Boyd County officials are not fully using.

The dump is operated by River Cities Disposal LLC, a subsidiary of Virginia-based EnviroSolutions Inc., a solid waste collection, disposal and recycling company that serves the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

They said they have a plan for improvements.

"Reducing odor at Big Run is our highest priority and we have been transparent about our plans, our progress and our expectations," said Scott Cunningham, regional vice president of EnviroSolutions.

Big trashslide

Citing violations since 2009, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet in January 2014 entered into an agreement with River Cities to clean up its act by May 23 of this year. It has slapped the company with $275,000 in penalties.

The slide that occurred in September 2013 involved more than 800,000 tons of waste, sending it some 400 feet off the landfill's plastic liner. Officials partly blamed the disposal of wet sludge.

All that movement damaged the landfill's methane gas collection system, causing odor complaints to surge, Hatton said.

State begins crackdown on radioactive waste

But even as the May 23 compliance deadline draws very near, residents are still complaining about odors, and state officials said they were not sure whether the landfill operators will meet their obligations.

The company's permit to operate the Big Run expires at the end of 2015, and Hatton promised close scrutiny of its operations and the quantity and mixture of its wastes, which has included sewage sludge from New York City.

The daily dumping of more than 3,500 tons is a "huge amount" for a landfill located in hilly countryside, where odors settle into low-lying areas by cooler air, he said.

For their part, the company official said landfill space was at a premium in on the East Coast, and he pledged to be in compliance after next week.

"We are investing $10 million to implement technology, systems and infrastructure to be in compliance ... by May 23rd and to address the odor issue for the long term," Cunningham said. "We expect that odor will be substantially reduced following the completion of significant enhancements to the gas system and the placement of final cap and enhanced long-term cover on at least 40 acres of landfill."

They are spraying more deodorant, changed how the trash is carried on the trains, and the company has cut back on sludge disposal, he said.

He said Big Run also offers the area economic benefits, including employing 72 local people with a 2014 payroll of $3.1 million

Revenue producer

The landfill wasn't always going to be so large, Hatton said.

An original plan in the late 1990s called for a dump at the site that would hold no more than 7,000 tons over its lifetime, he said.

Under state law, Boyd County is required to submit a waste management plan to the waste management division. And in 2005, county officials amended that plan to allow for as much as 43 million tons, Hatton said.

Radioactive waste a test for Bevin administration

A decade ago, county officials saw the landfill as a potential big source of revenue, said Towler, who has only been in office since January. He said it generates about $1 million of Boyd County's $20 million annual budget.

But he said the landfill never turned into the financial windfall some expected, and the scale of the operation has caught residents by surprise.

"I don't think a lot of people knew or ever really thought about 'trained-in garbage'," said the former United Way administrator and schools superintendent.

The landfill, near the U.S. 60 exit along Interstate-64, also generates about $2 million in fees that the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet spends across Kentucky to stop open dumping, support recycling, household hazardous waste collection and close abandoned landfills, Hatton said.

He said that revenue does not factor into its enforcement decisions.

Residents have stepped up their opposition as the landfill's compliance deadline approaches, and as the company's permit comes up for renewal.

"We would like to see that permit rescinded," said Borts, the spokesman for the Citizens of Boyd County Environmental Coalition, which has been fighting the landfill and pressing for more enforcement.

"In the last five years, we've been bombarded by trains," he said, estimating as many as 300 rail cars a day. People are concerned, he said, about the health consequences of breathing rotten-egg smelling hydrogen sulfide gas, and any other chemicals from the dump that may be in the air.

There's a nursing home and a residential homes nearby, and the high school is less than a mile away, he said. "People can't sit outside on their porches, and they have to light scented candles in their homes," he added.

One critic, Boyd County hairdresser Kenny Messer, even created a parody song, "Trash Train Blues," sung to the tune of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," that's been circulating on social media.

Legal action

A local lawyer in April filed a class-action lawsuit targeting the landfill operator and some other related companies. And on May 5, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition began legal action against River Cities and EnviroSolutions, with a notice of intent to sue under the federal Clean Air Act,

The notice claims the dump has inadequate controls to handle the odors, while doubling of the volume of waste, up from 163,000 tons during the fourth quarter of 2012, to 341,000 during the fourth quarter of last year.

Towler said people are especially irked that the trash is coming from hundreds of miles away, but he said does not believe there's much Boyd County can do about that.

"We've been told we can't block interstate commerce," he said. "We are at the mercy of the state."

Radioactive waste gives Kentucky 'black eye'

But counties do have tools to control the waste flowing into landfills in their communities, stemming from solid waste reforms by state lawmakers in the early 1990s, said environmental attorney Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council.

Back then, he said, "some communities were deeply resentful of being dumping grounds" for other communities that were not taking care of their own solid waste.

So through solid waste management plans, counties can limit the volume of waste coming to landfills in their communities, FitzGerald said.

FitzGerald said counties also can negotiate what are called "host agreements" with landfill operators. Those, they said, can include geographical limits on the waste, limits on the types of waste, as well as payments to the county.

Hatton agreed with FitzGerald and said he's informed local officials of their options.

Boyd County, however, has no such host agreement, conceded Towler.

That's a missed opportunity, Fitzgerald said.

"When you have tools available and you decide not to avail yourself of them, than that becomes a political question," FitzGerald said.

Towler said he's not sure what Boyd County Fiscal Court will do next.

"It's a complex issue," he said. "I don't like our citizens having odors that are offensive, far beyond normal."

But some residents already feel let down.

"Our county and state laws guarantee us a right to live without nuisances such as this and to protect the health and welfare of the people," said Candy Messer, Kenny Messer's wife. "They both have failed."

Reach reporter James Bruggers at (502) 582-4645 or on Twitter @jbruggers.

BIG RUN LANDFILL

Amount of waste that's dumped daily in landfill: 3,500 tons

Approximate number of garbage trucks it would take to haul 3,500 tons of waste: 300

Projected total waste capacity in Boyd County's original plan submitted to state: 7,000 tons

Projected total waste capacity in Boyd County amended plan for the landfill: 43 million tons

Number of local jobs affiliated with Rig Run: 72

2014 payroll for Big Run workers: $3.1 million

Annual amount Big Run pays Boyd County, which has total budget of $20 million budget: $1 million