191,000 gallons of hazardous wastewater spilled at Lowellville landfill
LOWELLVILLE - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has issued a Notice of Violation for multiple hazardous wastewater discharges into an on-site pond at the Carbon Limestone Landfill, operated by Republic Services, in Lowellville.-Report of elevated gas well temperatures
7/24/20262 min read
Ohio EPA cites landfill for spilling wastewater
LOWELLVILLE - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has issued a Notice of Violation for multiple hazardous wastewater discharges into an on-site pond at the Carbon Limestone Landfill, operated by Republic Services, in Lowellville.
The first incident occurred on May 6 at the South Stateline Road operation. Following heavy rain, soil dams were breached on the north side of Phase II in the landfill, and approximately 65,000 gallons of leachate — a liquid that forms when water filters through waste in a landfill that absorbs a variety of harmful substances — were released. The release went into an on-site pond that discharges into “waters of the State, ” which, according to the Ohio Revised Code, means “ streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems, and other bodies or accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial.”
A second leachate release occurred three days later, and another 65,000 gallons were released into the same pond on-site.
On May 11, the soil dams were rebuilt and the facility removed the leachate stormwater from the pond and transported it to the Mahoning Township Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The third release occurred on May 17, when approximately 61,000 gallons of toxic wastewater overflowed a 101,000-gallon leachate storage tank and spilled into a drainage ditch and into the same pond as the previous releases. The following day, soil dams were installed to contain the leachate and prevent any discharge outside the facility.
The Ohio EPA was notified of all incidents by the facility each time a release happened, but not within the required 24 hours after discovery.
Following a Division of Surface Water (DSW) compliance review of the site on May 29, three violations were found on-site:
Unauthorized discharges of leachate to Pond No. 1, which discharges to “waters of the State” at Outfall 001. The facility’s NPDES permit prohibits the discharge of leachate.
The facility did not report all unauthorized discharges of leachate to the western forebay, eastern forebay, and Pond No. 1 within 24 hours of discovery.
The facility has reported violations of effluent limits from October 1, 2022, to May 1, 2026, including a pH violation on August 10, 2023, and January 28, 2026; total suspended solids violations on January 1, 2024, and January 11, 2024.
The Ohio EPA is giving the facility until July 2 to submit a corrective action plan, including implementation and completion dates for repairing the landfill slope, and “properly managing the leachate storage tank and eliminating the release of leachate to the forebays.” The facility is required to “report all unauthorized discharges, in accordance with the NPDES permit, to Ohio EPA within 24 hours of discovery.
The landfill also notified the Ohio EPA on June 4 that the gas wells’ on-site temperatures exceeded 150 degrees six times since May 26.
According to the U.S. EPA, heat generation in a landfill is normal as microorganisms break down waste, but increased temperatures exceeding 145 degrees slow methane generation, while anything above 162 degrees has minimal landfill biological activity. Normal operating temperatures should be between 90 degrees and 131 degrees.
