Case Study: Madison County Sanitary Landfill, Florida
From GeoClasses
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Madison County Sanitary Landfill, Florida
by: Lydia Carpenter
- The Madison County Sanitary Landfill covers approximately 133 acres of land northeast of the main city of Madison, Florida. The city owned and operated the landfill from 1971 through March 1980, and during this time private companies were allowed to dispose of their waste products in the landfill.
- In September of 1984, the county found exceeded levels of trichloroethylene (TCE) and other similar compounds in the monitoring wells. According to city records, a private company by the name of ITT Thompson Industries, INC was allowed to dump waste containing these same chemicals. Madison County landfill entered the EPA’s national priority list for cleanup (NPL) in June of 1988. The landfill was then required to bring all toxins back to acceptable levels.
- The drums were then removed and transported to a hazardous waste facility by the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. A pump and treat method of cleanup where water is pumped out of the ground and treated was used along with soil vaporization which would hopefully extract TCE out of the soil. When levels of TCE were also found in private monitoring wells close to the site, ITT Thompson Industries helped out by supplying these citizens with bottled water, ice and even installing at home filtering systems.
- On December 30, 1996 the EPA did another inspection at the landfill and cleared it from the NPL. The site is undergoing long term cleanup of the Floridian aquifer but the Madison County Landfill is once again in use because it is no longer a risk to the surrounding environment. Hazardous wastes and liquids are now prohibited at the landfill to prevent future risks to the same problem.
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