Mounting environmental concerns at Mount Trashmore

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

It’s been one of Key West’s dirty little secrets. Literally.

What is possibly leaking out of the bottom of Mount Trashmore, the city’s garbage landfill on Stock Island? The landfill, which closed over 20 years ago, has a plastic cover on its top but one was never installed under its bottom. That has worried residents over the years about possible leaching of contaminated material into the ground, which abuts the ocean and the Gerald Adams Elementary School.

Key West City Commissioner Sam Kaufman attempted to tackle the issue at the Dec. 4 commission meeting, proposing that the city create a landfill/environmental advisory taskforce to evaluate potential concerns “so as to promote a cleaner, healthier and more pleasing living environment in and for the community,” according to the resolution. Saying there is “really bad stuff under there,” according to a state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) report, Kaufman wanted to give the new task force one year to evaluate and provide guidance on how to protect the area as well as recommend possible future uses for the site.

“We need to see how it can fit nicely next to an elementary school and across from a nursing home, which is next to a hospital,” he said.

While acknowledging the environmental concerns, the other commissioners worried that creating a new task force would overburden City Hall staff, some of whom would be tasked with providing administrative and research assistance to the new board. Instead, the commission agreed to give the project to the existing Key West Sustainability Advisory Board. But Kaufman, while making the vote unanimous, is still worried. The sustainability board already has several major tasks it is tackling, including assessing the 25 recommendations made recently by the Parking and Alternative Transportation Group as well as continuing efforts to oversee sustainable and “green” building in Key West.

“I have concerns the sustainability board already has a significant agenda on their plate. They have only six meetings scheduled for 2019,” Kaufman pointed out. “There’s just a ton of environmental issues they are already addressing.

Key West Utilities Director John Paul Castro told commissioners his department is finalizing a feasibility report on what it would cost to dismantle the landfill mound. While the final report is not complete, he was not encouraging, calling it “quite an undertaking.”

“To clean out the landfill, we’re looking at a price tag of $70 million to $190 million, based on the number of trucks going in and out of there daily and hauling the waste out of the Keys,” Castro said.

City Manager Jim Scholl said the city regularly maintains the landfill and tests for possible groundwater contamination in compliance with the DEP. So far, the test results are within state limits, he said. A series of pipes throughout the landfill capture the soupy, chemical brew that leaches to the bottom of the mound. But Scholl confirmed that there is no liner on the bottom of the landfill. And attempting to move it could cause its own problems.

“Right now, it’s closed, it meets all the requirements and the levels of contaminants are with the acceptable levels,” Scholl said. “Right now, the city staff’s goal is to not do anything out there that’ll cause any environmental problems.”

Commissioners Jimmy Weekley and Billy Wardlow both said they have been worried about the landfill. Weekley said he tried to bring up the issue of dismantling the landfill in 2005, until he heard the cost estimates. And Wardlow remembered that when he was the city’s fire chief, he regularly had to send crews out to the dump to extinguish fires caused by the methane gas that built up inside the pile.

“I’d like to see us work with Keys Energy Services to put some sort of solar farm out there or one of those test sites for metals and paint materials,” Wardlow said. “Because I think it’s going to be cost-prohibitive to mine that property, disassemble the mound and clean it up.”

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