“What really burns me” – Fostoria Mayor Don Mennel

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.