By KEVIN NEVERS

The Burns Harbor Advisory Plan Commission has endorsed the plan of Mittal Steel USA to construct a “state-of-the-art” landfill at its Burns Harbor facility for storing a sludge byproduct of the manufacturing process.

At its meeting Tuesday night, planners voted 6-0 to forward a favorable recommendation to the Board of Zoning Appeals. Planner Virginia Bain, whose husband, Town Council Member Louis Bain II, is preparing for another tour of Iraq, was not in attendance.

The Burns Harbor Zoning Ordinance permits the construction of a landfill in an I-2, or heavy industrial zone, but only with a special exception granted by the BZA. The BZA, in turn, requires a recommendation from the Plan Commission before granting a special exception. Mittal is scheduled to appear before the BZA on Aug. 28, and a public hearing will be held before the BZA takes action on the petition.

The landfill, dubbed the Deerfield Storage Facility and estimated to cost $7.3 million, would be sited on a 74.7-acre footprint within a 173-acre area at the present location of the steelmaker’s sludge stockpile, where over the years between 1.5 million and 1.8 million tons of the stuff have been stabilized and then simply dumped on the ground to a height of 20 feet.

That existing sludge, plus an additional 150,000 to 400,000 tons of it annually, would be stored in the new landfill.

The sludge itself, Mittal attorney John Bushemi said, is not classified as a hazardous waste. Rather it is an “industrial waste” comprised mainly of iron, oil and grease, and small amounts of lead and zinc, generated by seven different manufacturing processes, including the sinter plant and blast furnace, the vacuum degasser, the continuous casters, and the hot strip and plate mills. It has no odor and resembles a dense dark soil.

Roy Stanley of Civil and Environmental Consultants (CEC), Mittal’s contracted engineering firm, noted that Mittal R&D is currently trying to find a way to recycle the sludge. Right now, however, there is no “economically viable” way to do so.

The landfill would be constructed of a composite liner system and a leachate management system with multiple layers of subbase, backup soil, a geosynthetic clay liner, and topsoil, John DiNunzio of CEC said. When completed, years from now, it will reach a height of 90 feet above grade, only glimpses of which will be possible, however, through a buffer of trees slated for planting.

Rainwater which comes in contact with the sludge will be contained and processed through a new on-site treatment system prior to discharge into the existing wastewater treatment plant.

The advantages of the landfill would be numerous, Stanley said. It is more cost-effective than off-site disposal in commercial landfills; would reduce over-the-road truck traffic transporting the sludge off-site by 50 to 100 trucks per day with an attendant savings in fuel consumption; should R&D ever find a way to recycle the sludge it will be available and on-hand at the landfill; it is “environmentally protective” and will ensure the “economic sustainability” of the Burns Harbor plant; and, when the landfill is finally planted with native plants, it will provide something in the way of “future green space.”

Bushemi did pledge absolutely that all sludge stored at the landfill would be generated solely by the Burns Harbor plant and that the landfill would not accept sludge from any other Mittal plant.

Discussion

Planner Mike Perrine peppered the CEC reps with questions. How many wells will be dug to monitor ground water and at what depth? How often will samples be taken? Will samples be provided to IDEM? Will results of the samples be made available to the town? How long will the landfill be monitored after it has ceased operations?

The number of wells has not been determined, Stanley said, but they will surround the landfill and be dug to a range of depths. Sampling will begin almost immediately to determine a baseline and then probably be conducted biannually when the landfill is open for business. All sampling results will be submitted to IDEM. And sampling will continue for a period of 30 years after the landfill has been closed Stanley was unable to say with certainty whether copies of the results would be made available to the town. “But I don’t see why Mittal would not want to do that.”

Perrine also expressed some concern about the integrity of the liner itself, which would be assembled with individual pieces “welded” together.

Mittal must submit to IDEM a construction quality assurance plan, Stanley replied.

How do we know, planner Jim Meeks wondered, that in fact Mittal will not use the landfill to store sludge from other of its facilities?

“You have to expect us to act in good faith,” Bushemi answered. “I expect the company to follow that and I’m sure it will.”

Will any construction debris be used as a base? asked planner Terry Swanson.

No, DiNunzio said, and any construction debris unearthed during building will be taken off site.

Dig down 10 feet, planner Gordon McCormick predicted, and you’ll find contaminated soil.

That soil will be excavated and placed in the container, DiNunzio said.

How are you going to transfer all of the existing sludge into the container without damaging the liner? President Bernie Poparad asked. Wouldn’t any equipment or vehicles puncture or otherwise compromise it?

Roads will be constructed into the facility with sand so trucks can enter it and dump the sludge without damaging the liner, DiNunzio responded.

“Just putting it on the ground isn’t a good idea,” Meeks observed. “This is a 1, 000 percent better. But is it the best system or just a better one?” he asked Town Engineer Hesham Khalil.

“The best idea is not to have any solid waste,” Khalil said. But the landfill is “definitely an improvement.”

“If you’ve been there,” Poparad remarked of the existing stockpile, “it’s just nasty back there anyhow. And anything we can do to make it better we should do.”

Khalil did inform Bushemi that the town will want to make inspections during construction. Bushemi readily agreed.

In the end the planners voted unanimously to endorse a special exception, with two conditions: that the town receives copies of all reports submitted to IDEM, and that it receive a set of as-built drawings when construction of the landfill is completed.

Posted 8/18/2007