Alachua County Commission votes to perform continuous air monitoring around the Florence landfill

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – During the evening session of their April 8 meeting, the Alachua County Commission voted to spend $95,099 to perform continuous air monitoring around the Florence landfill for six months.

Chris Gilbert, Alachua County Hazardous Materials Program Manager, reviewed the closure plan for the Florence C&D (construction and demolition) landfill, which will require a 24-inch cover of soil with vegetation, stormwater management, restrictions on access to the site, and a gas management system, if necessary. The company must monitor groundwater at the site for five years after the closure date.

Options for continuous air monitoring

Gilbert then gave the Commission options for continuous air monitoring, which was requested by neighbors of the landfill at the January 28 County Commission meeting. Options include units that measure particulate matter, hydrogen sulfide, and weather data, or all of those plus nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide, every 15 minutes (if the County decides to use multiple units, they would log data every 30 minutes). Gilbert said the second option would be more relevant for monitoring a typical landfill, as opposed to a construction and demolition landfill. The County could choose to monitor the air for six months, with assessment of the results, or for the active life of the facility. 

County does not have authority to revoke the landfill’s permit

Gilbert reminded the Commission that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) regulates and enforces the facility permit, not the County; there have been no violations of the current FDEP permit; and all of the permit conditions fall under the authority of FDEP. Other challenges include getting access to monitoring locations, obtaining a power supply and a reliable internet connection, protection from vandalism and weather events, and a funding source. The options for renting equipment ranged from a total cost of $41,608 to $158,955 for six months of monitoring; the costs would double if that were extended to a year, for example, and it would cost about four times as much to purchase the equipment.

Staff recommended contracting with an environmental consultant to install one monitoring site for particulate matter and hydrogen sulfide for six months (the lowest cost option), with the option to continue, based on the results.

Gilbert said that if a single unit found a problem, there would be some question about the source of the particles that were detected; adding more units placed around the site would allow the County to “triangulate” the source.

Commissioner Mary Alford asked what the County could do if they found a problem, and Hofstetter said the data would be referred to FDEP.

Commissioner Ken Cornell said he favored either option D or F for six months and reassessing after that period.

Commissioner Anna Prizzia agreed that three units made “a lot of sense, because it allows us to triangulate… in order to be able to definitively say that it was the landfill and to be able to understand maybe which direction it’s coming from, too, so if there’s mitigation that needs to be done, they know where and how to do that.” She favored monitoring particulate matter and hydrogen sulfide since there are no complaints about any of the other substances. She favored option C.  

Motion

Prizzia made a motion to move forward with option C – three monitoring units for six months surrounding the landfill – and then re-evaluate, based on the data.

Gilbert said the units could be up and running “in a number of weeks.” Assuming agreements can be reached, the units would be at Showers Blessing Church, The Family Garden farm, and Prairie View Elementary School.

During public comment on the motion, eight people spoke, raising various concerns with the closure plan but generally supporting air monitoring.

Prizzia: neighbors of the landfill should call their legislators

Prizzia told the audience that they should call their legislators “because at this stage, like, they are holding all the cards. They’re holding the closure plan over our heads; even this is a step out because they’ve said that they hold all the regulatory authority, even on the monitoring.”

Cornell asked for a follow-up on part of the motion from the January 28 meeting, a request for staff to contact Mr. Florence and ask him to divert all drywall to the Palatka facility and consider implementing an early closure plan. Assistant County Manager Missy Daniels said they’re still waiting for a response on the drywall (she corrected this statement later in the meeting), but they were told it’s only about 1% of the materials collected by the landfill. She added that drywall is in the County’s code as an allowable material for a C&D landfill and the landfill is currently planning on continuing operations until the legislative extension deadline.

Prizzia pointed out that the legislature could change the extension by filing an errata bill because, she said, the extensions for hurricane states of emergency were probably not intended for this sort of permit extension: “I do think this wasn’t the intention of that bill. That bill was to make sure that we had access to landfills and other tools in our toolbox when there’s an emergency, but not in a situation where it was a non-conforming use in a problematic area to begin with.” 

When does the permit extension expire?

In response to a question about when that extension ends, Gilbert said the company had referenced both Hurricane Ian and Tropical Storm Nicole; the Nicole state of emergency ended, so the landfill can get an extension for two years after the state of emergency ended. Gilbert said the Ian state of emergency has not ended, and the landfill can use two extensions for up to a total of 48 months. Gilbert said the statute is “ambiguous,” and if the County and the landfill disagree on the extension date, it could end up in a court. 

Cornell said, “I think that’s the whole issue. If we can’t come to a resolution with Florence, then there’s going to be a point in time where… the courts decide. I don’t want to get to court. I want to get to a resolution with Florence.”

Prizzia said there was a letter from Florence’s attorney that said they’re not interested in diverting drywall at this time, and Cornell said, “I wanted to give them a chance to respond here, Commissioner, and then I’m ready to roll when y’all are.”

Alford pointed out that if they don’t add a monitor for background detection, the company could argue that substances are coming from somewhere else; a fourth monitor would be option E for $95,099. She said, “I kind of feel like a background [monitor] is important. I’m just putting that out there as an environmental engineer, which I’m not supposed to do as a Commissioner, but I just feel like, professionally, that would be what I would recommend.”

She also encouraged the facility’s neighbors to contact legislators about an errata bill: “You guys have a large voice here. You’re the neighbors; you’re the ones being affected; and you have a powerful voice with your legislators. So please use it.”

Amended motion

Alford asked whether the motion could be modified to add a fourth background monitor, and Prizzia agreed, “Sure, if our environmental engineer thinks it’s important.”

Before the vote, Chestnut said, “The further we continue with this process, it’s becoming very, very frustrating to me. All of our authority in recent years has been sort of taken from us, from the legislature, and then our powers are limited when a person can go use a loophole in the law to get by, and it becomes very frustrating when you’re an elected official and you’re trying to be fair on both sides to the residents and to the business owner, but when the business owner doesn’t seem that he wants to participate, then it moves me to a different position to say that you don’t want to negotiate.”

Chestnut: “This has been a problem in East Gainesville for many, many, many years. This is nothing new… It’s frustrating to me when someone doesn’t want to come to the table… I don’t think I have any more sympathy left for businesses who don’t want to participate and help with the problem.”

Chestnut continued, “In terms of the years of operations – if he hasn’t made enough money, shame on it. And if he spent a lot of money to where he is today, and he has not made that money back, shame on it. This has been a problem in East Gainesville for many, many, many years. This is nothing new… It’s frustrating to me when someone doesn’t want to come to the table… I think we need this [monitoring data] to be able to fight and to give to the legislature, to show that there is an issue and a reason… So anyway, it’s just frustrating at this point to me that we have to play these legislative games, these political games, to do something that we know needs to happen and we can’t do it. And it’s become frustrating to me… I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think I have any more sympathy left for businesses who don’t want to participate and help with the problem. He’s not a problem solver, so it’s the American way of life – greed. So I’m sorry, guys, but I just had to vent that tonight. I’m just frustrated at this point, and I don’t understand why we have to do all of this to get the outcome we want, but it’s necessary. This is the way the game is played.”

Daniels interjected that Commissioner Prizzia was correct that the County received a letter from the Florences’ attorney that said they will not divert the drywall to another landfill. 

The vote on the motion to move forward with Option E ($95,099) was unanimous.