“What really burns me” – Fostoria Mayor Don Mennel

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You know what really burns me?

That someone could allow the leachate from the landfill to be put into our sewer treatment plant again.

Mr. Mayor as a person I really do like you. I think that you’re a wise man, smart businessman, and all-around decent human being. But you are definitely lacking in the mayoral role that you’re in now.

First and foremost, you stated that you did a visual inspection of the leachate spill of 55,000 gallons more water. And then you try to explain away the decision to do that by trying to explain water runoff from a landfill. You stated something of the nature that if the water seeps into the trash or into the cover soil and then runs off, that is leachate, but if it runs off the top of the soil down the hill, that is not leachate.

Sure, you are not only mistaken, but you are way, way out of the ballpark. As a former employee, I can attest to and tell you and everyone else that any amount of water that touches that landfill immediately becomes leachate.

Let’s talk about the areas that don’t have very good cover or the transfer station that puts out so much dust into the air that it is almost impossible to see 3 ft in front of yourself, and that dust travels, even if a short distance, and lands directly on the runoff water as it’s coming down the top of the hill, not to mention the trucks that go up and down the hills kicking up garbage, dust, and whatever else may happen, and then the heavy equipment that’s supposed to be burying that trash with cover soil. It turns up the trash and the dust and God only knows what, and it lands right on top of all of that runoff.

A visual inspection wasn’t near enough to let you know whether or not that stuff could be cleaned up. Then consider all of the heavy metals and forever chemicals that are inside of that trash because there’s just as much municipal solid waste as there is C&D, sometimes even more, that should have never been taken into the sewer treatment.

Let me ask you a question. What happens to the water after the sewer treatment plant is done with it? They put it back into the environment, correct? What do you think’s inside of that water? All those forever chemicals, all those heavy metals, and all that nasty crap was right back into it, into the soil and possibly into our drinking water. Never thought about that clearly, did you?

You are having that hauled off by tanker truck to an off-site location, the sewer treatment plant. How about to an off-site location that handles that kind of stuff every day? There are many, many disposal places that handle liquid hazardous waste.

Not understanding the last time it was put there, it wasn’t stopped because of a smell. It’s because anybody that knows anything about the environment and the process to clean sewage and stormwater knows that once it has been cleaned, it is dumped right back into the environment, usually open land or creeks, rivers, or ponds. It identifies that liquid as being clean, treated, and can be put back into the environment where it will end up back on the water table and possibly into the drinking water or into the freshwater creeks and streams, killing fish and other wildlife.

The information that you spoke of sounds exactly like what Ben Nutter would have said and placate the citizens of Fostoria, but I’m telling you now, everything that he says, except maybe when he announces his name, is a lie.

The landfill is a self-monitoring entity, meaning they can lie and do whatever they want and put out some report full of only half-truths and lies, and they know that they can get away with it. And then you have an EPA who turns a blind eye and an attorney general who takes credit for anything that happens regarding the landfill that makes them be accountable and of course also turns a blind eye.

It was my hope that you, as the mayor, would not turn a blind eye to the lies, the theft, the fraud, and the downright malice that the landfill continues to do. People are dying, people are being diagnosed with illnesses, and people are being told of their imminent death.

Stop worrying about the money that’s going to come in from it. Stop it from happening. You can figure out something else. Do not accept that toxic liquid in our sewer treatment plant.

THIS IS WHAT BURNS ME

Thomas Domich

 

“What Really Burns Me” – HYPOCRITES, LIARS, THE LANDFILL.

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HYPOCRITES, LIARS, THE LANDFILL.

I read the last piece that was done by the Fostoria Free Press about the landfill and its so-called administrator and liaison to former commissioner Ben Nutter. A lot of good information, but also a lot that is still not known, some of which I’m going to give you today.

As a former employee and former manipulator, falsifier of documents, all while working for Sunny Farms and under their instructions, I can tell you things first-hand that you may or may not believe, so I’ll give it to you in the form of my opinion.

Chris Valerian was the owner of Live Earth LLC. While the information is correct that WCA acquired the landfill from Mr. Valerian in the tune of 88 million, there’s some information that’s not given about the ties between Ben Nutter, Mr. Valerian, and WCA.

WCA purchased the landfill earlier than stated; according to the SEC, they purchased that landfill in 2009, not 2011 as others believed or was made public. Also, since Mr. Valerian, who was indebted to someone from whom he received the money to purchase the landfill in the first place, WCA came to the rescue by paying off his debt, giving him 88 million, giving him 555.5 million shares of WCA, which was about 13.7% at that time. Also, they kept him in charge of the landfill and the transfer stations on the East Coast.

And if Mr. Valerian gave campaign contributions to Ben Nutter, then I believe WCA would have known about it as well because it would have been their money that paid for that campaign.

As far as falsifying documents and things of that nature, being as I was one of the people that did that while I worked there, I can guarantee you that type of conduct has been going on since long before I started working there. Also, by WCA buying the landfill earlier than was publicly released, and WCA being, at that time, part of another company who was owned by Tunnel Hills and GFL, which purchased WCA before that was publicly released as well, it goes to show a pattern of non-compliance, lies, deceit, and downright hatred for the people of Fostoria.

While I worked there, there used to be a scale tower that was on the other side of the landfill, away from the public. It was there for us to be able to weigh the trucks as they were leaving the transfer station and to verify whether or not the trash that was in the back of the trucks was CD&D or if it was MSW (municipal solid waste). While in that scale house, the transfer station was instructed that anything that was loaded into the trucks could be anything that they wanted, MSW or CD&D, but they had to try to get as much CD&D as they could on the top because I had to take pictures of it, which in turn, those pictures were to be sent to the health department and the front scale house as evidence that the majority was CD&D, which in turn, later, those photos were passed to the EPA and to the customers so they could milk them for more money.

I say that because they were crooked enough to have me take pictures only of CD&D. If the truck did not have any CD&D on the top of the municipal trash to hide it, I was to zoom in specifically on a piece of destruction material, and every day I would manipulate weights and photos to make sure that the landfill received the highest pay they could for trash that was exactly that, just trash, with unknown materials inside.

After so long of doing that, when my health started to fade, I came to the realization that if I didn’t do something about it or say something to someone, it wouldn’t be just me whose health would be fading. Most of us were already blowing out black, nasty goop out of our nose and coughing up brown and black phlegm. I thought maybe some of that would have been attributed to the asbestos that was illegally buried there without permits, but I was not diagnosed with mesothelioma. I was diagnosed with COPD, now at stage 4, and something solid in my lungs that they cannot identify and are afraid to try to remove any of because it may cut up my lungs on the way out. But it does move around in my lungs, causing me grief and difficulty breathing. So, I reported to the EPA. I gathered pictures and duplicate pictures and had them in a file that I was going to give the EPA and the customers. Suffice it to say, I was caught. I was threatened for my job and told that my NDA would not allow me to do such a thing. I later found out that if there are health problems that you have from working somewhere, an NDA does not apply.

The connection between Mr. Valerian, Mr. Nutter, and another man named Joe Frola, who happened to be general manager of the landfill at the time, is unknown by this writer, but there is a connection.

This is just the tip of the iceberg that shows the pattern that is there, that continues to happen over and over again because they can get away with it, and all because they learn it from the prior owners who are all under the same umbrella.

I think that maybe the next City Council meeting, we should all bring some water in from our faucet and ask them to drink it. I guarantee you, quick, fast, and in a hurry, they’ll refuse, and if they don’t refuse, that only goes to show you that their health is good enough from living elsewhere, that whatever they drink isn’t going to harm them like it has us.

And for those of you who think I’m living in the past and everything is different now, you’re wrong. We are supposed to learn from our mistakes in the past, not continue them, and the landfill continues to do the same things over and over again, just in a new way, hoping that we won’t catch on. The pattern continues, and I feel bad for anyone who works there right now because quite a lot, if not all of you, will most likely end up with health issues in the future.

And in my opinion, Ben Nutter has betrayed Seneca County and the people that live here. It’s no wonder that he lost his campaign.



AND THAT’S WHAT REALLY BURNS ME
Thomas Domich