Osceola Commissioners Vote Unanimously in Favor of Environmental Testing at JED Landfill Facility
Published on: Jul 17, 2019
PR19-46
Osceola County, Florida – At the request of Osceola County Commission Chairwoman Cheryl Grieb, representatives from JonesEdmunds and MansonBolves delivered a presentation and initial set of recommendations to the Board during an update at the July 15, 2019 Board of County Commission (BCC) meeting. The BCC recently called for and approved the engagement of experts to assist Osceola County with issues related to the JED Landfill and coal ash; JonesEdmunds (environmental engineers and consultants) and MansonBolves (attorneys at law) were selected. Troy Hays, an engineer from JonesEdmunds, reported that all current TCLP tests performed by AES (source of the Puerto Rican coal ash) showed that no metals tested above regulatory levels, and that the coal ash entering the JED Landfill are considered non-hazardous. Hays also presented an overview of landfill design and operations, including information on groundwater movement, flow and monitoring.
Following the presentation, the Board took immediate action to move forward with the following recommendations:
- Implementation of water-sample testing by Osceola County (split-sample method) at the JED Landfill in accordance with FDEP mandated semi-annual testing schedule; request to perform additional TCLP testing on coal ash samples upon arrival at the JED Landfill, and request to conduct inspections on site.
The consultants also recommended that the County plan to review and request additional information regarding the leachate-evaporator permit recently submitted by the JED Landfill, and that Osceola County meet with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to coordinate these and future actions.
“We’re committed to a healthy environment and wonderful quality of life for our Osceola County residents and future residents,” said Osceola County Chairwoman Cheryl Grieb. “That’s why we moved so quickly to finalize the overall scope of this environmental work, and also to act on these initial recommendations.” Continued Grieb, “As discussed at previous Board meetings, we’ve asked the consultants to be on hand for every Board meeting. In order to move as quickly as possible on the recommendations that were presented, the Board took decisive action at Monday’s meeting. We will be presenting the findings and recommendations again, and the consultants will again make themselves available for any questions that may arise.”