[Announce] Landfills Toxic Emissions

[James Travers]

Not that very long ago I posted this information on the Democracy In Albany  website regarding landfill emissions in response to a reader's comment about opening your car window to catch a whiff of of the rotten eggs odor emanating from the Rapp Road Landfill:
   
  Do Not Roll Your Window Down! 
   
  Most folks can detect the noxious odor without rolling down their windows. 
   
  As I said, these are toxic emissions. 
   
  I'll give the definition of just one of the many.
The one most responsible for "the odor". 
   
  Remember your chemistry? H2SO4 is sulfuric acid.
It's one of the components of "Acid Rain" that's killing our Adirondack lakes and trees. 
   
  Sulfur dioxide (SO2): 
   
  "a colorless gas with a pungent, suffocating odor... 
  
...It is corrosive to organic materials and dissolves in water to form sulfurous acid, H2SO3. ...Sulfur dioxide is a dangerous air pollutant because of its corrosive properties; it irritates the eyes, nose, and lungs." 
   
  Hmm... No mention of rotten eggs there. OK, then one more:   Hydrogen sulfide (H2S): 
   
  "a colorless, extremely poisonous gas that has a very disagreeable odor, much like that of rotten eggs..." 
   
  These are only two of the many toxins being aerosolized by the landfill. 
   
  Other heavy metals such as mercury and lead are also contained in landfill emissions. 
   
  Rachel's Environmental Health Weekly, a publication of the Environmental Research Foundation has a thorough library on landfills and the dangers they pose.
  
Here's a link: http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=2 
   
  For a cursory understanding of the dangers posed by landfills I would suggest the following Rachel's articles, some of which are older but the information they relate is still valid. 
   
  #617- Landfills Are Dangerous, September 24, 1998
#316- New Evidence That All Landfills Leak, December 16, 1992
#556- WMI: A Culture of Fraud and Dishonesty, July 24, 1997
#268- EPA's New Landfill Rules Protect Only The Largest Garbage Haulers, 01-15-92 
#29- Recycling Is Hampered; It Can't Compete With Low-Cost Landfills, June 15, 1987
#314- Cement And Kiln Dust Contain Dioxins, December 02, 1992
#192- Incinerator Ash -- Part 4: Dump Now, Let The Children Pay Later, August 01, 1990 
   
  The last two articles I've included because the landfill uses "clinker", waste kiln dust, as a ground cover. 
   
  More on this toxic ground cover can be found here: 
   
  http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/multisys2.get_list_tri?tri_fac_id=12143BLCRCROUTE 
   
  Scroll down the page to "Chemicals Released to the Land Surface".   This also is what's being placed atop our aquifer. 


   
  http://www.democracyinalbany.com/story/2007/2/21/587/68230



       
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