Agenda - Council - 09/15/1980 - Special

Home

the Federal Forest Service is going to take some tests to see if the soil is causing the trees to die and until the city receives this information from them, there isn't much to relate. He said he has a friend in Stacy~ Minnesota and they are having al~st the same problem with their trees and they are dying in the outer perimeter just like Ramsey's. Ms. Ritchie fmom the State Health Department said it appeared to her that the Federal Forest Service would be able to discern whether it is the Landfill that is causing the problem. She said next week, the Health Department could test the homes in the area, keeping the question in mind of what effect on children the methane gas would have. She said the primary concern with methane is that it is asphyxias, but the concentrations would have to be 20 to 30% by volume for this.because the physiological processes in the body can tolerate higher levels of gases than the 3 to 5% explosive levels. Therefore, this would not, in her opinion, he the problem here. She said the buildup would be much higher if a house was closed up. She said there would be some seepage of methane in and out of the homes, which they would check. She said she thought the concern about children who don't get outside like in ~winter time is an important issue to look into. Mr. Don Farb, Barr Engineering, said they are consulting with the County on their Landfill. He said published literature shows there is no toxic effect at the 2% methane level. Mayor Gamec observed that the real concern seems to be the explosive level of the methane. City Administrator Schnelle said that no one really knows for sure if there is a toxic effect or not and he felt this was a concern also. Mr. Gregory Woelfel, Regional Engineer with Waste Management, Inc., said they believe that the problem, if one exists, is a combination of two issues. During last fail, lime sludge was placed on the west slope and it sealed it off keeping methane from escaping from the Landfill. This week, they discovered a malfunction of the timely device on the methane pump and this is being corrected. They did monitoring of residential homes last night and did not detect any methane. They will put in detection alarms to go off when the methane levels go up before they r~ach the explosive levels. County Commissioner Ed Fields said he thought when they hired Bart Engineering last year, these problems would be checked, & it is too bad they didn't find the present problem before the residents did. He said it was an embarassing situation. Mr. Farb, Bart Engineering said they concentrated on the water quality of the Landfill and had not been looking at the gas levels at all. He said they are two weeks fmom finishing at this time and were not prepared to give information at this time. City Administrator Schnelle reiterated that the citizens are concer~ned about the health and safety hazard and how long it is going to be before something is done about it. Ms. Ritchie said the State Health Department was notified yesterday of the problem and next week, she' is going to come back and take samples for methane and other bases in the homes and the areas to and fromthe homes to the Landfill. Special Council August 15, 1980 Page 3