Leavenworth county landfill has in the words of a county commissioner threatened and unfolding environmental disaster for Kansas. Neighbors. The landfills owner and the State Department of Health and Environment have become entangled in a fiery dispute that has a times involves real flames. The landfill was the site of a major blaze in 2022. Welcome to the Kansas reflector podcast. My name is Clay wire stone. I'm the opinion editor here. And with us today to talk about her story digging into the situation at flatland landfill in Easton is Alison kite. She's a reporter for both the Kansas reflector and the Missouri independent. And we're glad to welcome her here today.
Thanks for having me. Clay.
Hi, Allison. So let's talk a little bit about the central dispute here. What what do nearby land owners and the landfill have? Between them? What's what's the problem?
Sure. So the current owners of the landfill have been, I've owned it for about five years or so. And the neighbors around the landfill, said that shortly after the the current owners bought it, there was a big increase in truck traffic. There was a period in early 2022, where kind of this mound of uncovered trash was forming at the landfill. And the Kansas Department of Health environment ended up citing the landfill for not compacting and covering its trash and taking waste that it was not authorized to it's a construction and demolition debris landfill. So it shouldn't be as much of a nuisance to neighbors as a regular municipal landfill, that's gonna have a lot smellier waste. But they were taking stuff that wasn't allowed, ended up being cited by kth G. And shortly thereafter, the landfill caught fire, which as I'm sure you can imagine, didn't do anything to help the smell that the neighbors were complaining about. There were smolders on and off for several months. And the neighbors were concerned about, you know, if, if we can smell this noxious odor, what are we breathing. And so it just kind of unraveled from there the dispute between the the landowners and homeowners in the area and the landfill owner who says that, you know, he's got everything under under control. Now he's in compliance with state environmental regulations. And at this point, it feels like he's being, you know, badgered and harassed by the some members of the community. He says, It's not the entire community that's against him. And he's dealt with, you know, people trespassing at the landfill. He's had equipment stolen, he said, Just last month, he had a couple of security cameras stolen. So it's just kind of this very tangled web of of dispute.
Well, it's fair to say I would think at this point that both sides feel like they're the victims here.
Yeah, I think that's I think that's definitely fair to say. And at this point, you know, the the fires have died down a little bit. There are occasional hotspots in the landfill. But I want to be very clear to say it's not like an active blaze at this point.
And he's also singled out a particular family. Correct. Correct. For for persecuting him.
Yes. So the kind of across the state highway from the landfill is kind of this this ridge that people have referred to as crook Hill, the cook family all kind of live on adjacent properties that are basically their their grandfather's farm that was divvied up between the grandkids as they got married. And so he's saying that, you know, this, this one particular family is is driving most of the complaints about his landfill.
So So let's shift gears a little bit now and talk a bit about the state's handling of this. Because in the timeline that we're talking about the state doesn't actually become involved in looking at the situation at this landfill for a while. Is that Is that correct?
Yeah. So they had come out in 2021. After some complaints and took a look around and and didn't substantiate them. Then there was kind of this period from I would say, late 2021 into just before the fire in February 2022. Where the county was getting a lot of complaints And then Katy, he came out when the county issued a cease and desist letter to the landfill. And they came out and took a look at what was happening and issued five violations.
And what were those violations? What did they find? How, how serious were they?
Sure. So there was a violation for unauthorized waste, which a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said was a pretty common one. There was one for failing to compact their waste. So there are pictures in the inspection report. And you can see an individual standing next to the trash heap, and they are dwarfed by it. It they, the trash heap was, according to the inspection report about 50 feet high, nearly vertical. And so the neighbors were complaining about trash blowing off the property and onto theirs. So they were cited for that for failing to cover the, the heap with clean fill dirt, failing to screen their waste, and, and not having a screening area delineated. They had some, some tires and random containers in the landfill that aren't allowed in construction landfills. And something to note is that the owner of the landfill said that shortly before this period, most of his staff was out with COVID. And he spent some time in the hospital on oxygen with COVID. came pretty close to having to be put on a ventilator. He said.
So let's talk I mean, any anytime I'm assuming you talk about a landfill, and then you say, oh, there's there's a fire. And also in the case of your story, emissions of various poisonous gases, that's got to get people's attention. So what does the state say? What do the folks about this say about this being a danger to folks in the neighborhood? Like what's what's what's going on with this? Where people at risk? What do we know about that?
Sure. So at this point, I think Katie, he would say it is not an ongoing danger to the community. There was some air monitoring, done in February of this gear, so a year after the fire. So it's it's hard to say, you know, what the fumes might have been like, right after the fire, because there isn't any testing that I was able to get my hands on. So. But at this point, the state came in and did some testing, there were a few vents in the surface of the landfill that were emitting hydrogen sulfide and methane. They were at levels, such that if you put the device to measure the gases, like right in the vent at the surface of the landfill, you could pick up some of the gases. But if you repeated that testing, at like 18 inches, two feet above the ground, it was dispersing enough that it was not measurable. And then it was they did some testing at the perimeter of the property, which is how you determine if it is, you know, a threat to the neighbors, and they were not detecting any of those dangerous gases at the perimeter of the property. But I don't know what it would have looked like immediately after the fire last year.
And the landfills owner has given a number of accounts, shall we say about how the fire started? Or what the cause might have been? Tell me a little bit about that?
Sure. I think the the short answer is we just really don't know. The state fire marshal did a report and could not determine the cause of the fire. They said there was no evidence to support that. It could be arson, but they also didn't rule out arson. And so I think that at this point, we're really just speculating, you know, the landfill owner basically said, you know, that he couldn't prove it was arson. But because of all of these problems he had with trespassing and equipment failures, that seemed intentional, there was water in the gasoline of one of his bulldozers. He felt that it could have been an intentional fire. But again, there is no evidence to prove that other than his kind of suspicion based on other things that he's he's dealt with in the course of running this landfill.
And to push a little more about the, the, the man who owns this landfill He's also had kind of a dispute with Leavenworth county itself about his his ownership of the landfill. So what what was that about?
Sure, so the county issued, so he has a special use permit through the county, because the landfill is close to homes. And so the county in early 2022, early February issued a cease and desist order. And this was like not too long before the fire. And, you know, he had returned to compliance with Katy he shortly after they came out and inspected but he was still under the cease and desist from the county. He ended up suing in federal court saying that the county had not justified the cease and desist and was keeping him shut down illegally. And so he, the lawsuit talks about how he felt that flatland has suffered, quote, various instances of sabotage, threats, coercion and unexplained fires that are too coincidental to be unrelated to the county's actions. And he cited the incident I mentioned earlier, when the bulldozer was found to have five gallons of water in the tank. And basically, he was saying that this, the lawsuit says that everything that has happened at the landfill, he felt was, quote, suspicious behavior suggesting a self interested government takeover, or insider dealing for political gain.
When he purchased the landfill from the county, is that correct?
So no, there was an owner in between. Okay, so there was another private owner that purchased it from the county and he purchased it from that owner.
And so his theory, though, is that the county regrets having sold this this landfill. Right.
And there's, you know, some some evidence to that there was a county commissioner in a meeting talking about this landfill saying, you know, I wish we hadn't sold it, that doesn't necessarily mean that the county is sabotaging him in an effort to get it back. But that, you know, they I think the county is frustrated with the complaints that they've they've gotten from citizens and, and the operating of this landfill, and at least one of them would like to have it back.
So I'm assuming you have have been out there and seen this landfill? That's correct. Yep. So can you just describe it a little bit for us?
Sure. It looks really different. I will say then the pictures from a year ago, shortly before the fire. Now, pretty much everything is covered with clean filled dirt. The landfill owner and I drove all around the property, there were only a few isolated spots where I felt like I could smell much of anything. And I'm sure that's highly dependent on the weather and the wind direction. But But yeah, I mean, it looks like landfill. But it was, I would say, in much better shape than than it was before the fire.
And we've also heard as as this has story has kind of unfolded over the last year or so. We've heard Kansas legislators bring up this dispute as well. So what have they said what what is their take on this?
So we've gotten some different responses. There was a there were a couple of hearings in the Kansas house, agriculture and natural resources Budget Committee. That's a mouthful, where they brought in a couple of the county commissioners and one of the neighbors to talk about what was going on. And I think the the members of the committee seemed, you know, somewhat, I don't want to say alarmed but they wanted some more information out of Katy he and so they brought in a Katy he official and questioned, questioned him. But there are some very, very big differences of opinion representative Lance Neely, a Republican from the area was saying that he had gone out to the landfill, drove around with the owner didn't smell anything, everything was fine, etc. then on the flip side of that, Senator Jeff Pittman, a Democrat from a nearby district was saying that it was it was a huge problem and people could smell the landfill five miles away.
Yeah, and So that's what we've heard from legislators. You've also talked to the families, the folks who are surrounding the landfill, and are around or relatively near to it. And, you know, just to bring this back to them. They're still concerned. Right? Is that fair to say?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, and what what are they? I mean, is it? Is it a concern that there's going to be more fire that it's not going to be taken care of? How would you how would you characterize how they they feel about him?
I think a big concern is, of theirs is just they felt like they have not gotten as much communication and information out of kth G as they would have liked, which if there were a future fire, I think, you know, has, it would be alarming to know that you're not going to get the response from your state regulators that you feel like the community deserves. And they say, you know, most are not most, but many days, they can still smell the landfill. And, you know, they're worried about being able to enjoy their rural, idyllic homes, you know, living all next door to each other as a family. One of the members of the family, Howard crook, told me that they're not trying to be problem makers, and he said, quote, what we're worried about is our grandkids, and this farm that was left to us as a family heirloom. So, you know, they want to be able to continue this tradition of farming in Leavenworth county that their grandfather started when he bought the place.
Sure. And so where where does every everything go from here? That's where the the, the nearby residents are, but what are their next steps? What what what's, what do you see happening in the future?
So the there are a couple of next steps. Katie, he said, there will be another air monitoring event. So we'll see what the results of that show about the fumes if there are still any detectable in the area. And then the Leo Henning, high ranking official in Katy, he said that the owner of the landfill is continuing to put more clean dirt on top to smother the any ongoing smoldering events. And that he hopes that is done by by summer, Katie, he said, you know that they would be they would be there until the fire is out.
Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining us on The Kansas reflector podcast to talk about your story. Allison, I really appreciate you taking the time.
