The Saufley Field Landfill, located in Pensacola, Florida, is a Construction and Debris (C&D) landfill. In past months, landfill had piled waste from recent hurricanes. When a landfill fire broke out in late November, the high slope made it impossible to adequately snuff the fire. As a C&D Landfill, the facility was not required to maintain a 3 to 1 slope. Residents complained of smoke, odor, and health concerns to the Florida Department of Health and FDEP.
On Tuesday, January 23, 2005 OSCs David Dorian and Matt Huyser responded to a request from the Florida Department for Environment (FDEP)to provide air monitoring at the Saufley Field Landfill in Pensacola, Florida. While there were no longer continuous flames, smoke continued to emerge as hot spots vented.
At the time of the FDEP request for assistance from EPA, the fire was fundamentally out. Some smoke vented as hot spots continued to smolder. The facility had for some weeks been excavating the landfill to establish a workable slope. Saufley Field landfill is able to dig out the hot spots when they began to vent smoke. Although this process causes smoke to billow out, the hot spot excavations do mitigate the hot spots relatively quickly.
Beginning Tuesday, January 23 EPA START contractors monitored the air at the facility fence line and in the surrounding neighborhood. This monitoring continued through Thursday afternoon. The following parameters were monitored using hand-held instruments:
• Carbon Monoxide
• Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs)
• Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S)
• Sulfur Dioxide (detection range 0.4 to 10 ppm)
• Particulates (total, 15 minute time-weighted average)
On Wednesday, January 24, EPA START contractors established 5 asbestos sampling stations in the residential neighborhood surrounding the landfill. Sampling was biased towards the downwind side. The SKC pumps ran for approximately 5 hours passing sufficent air volume through the filter media for NIOSH method 7402 (TEM analysis). Two additional samples were taken the following day inside the landfill fence line.
EPA will tablulate the monitoring data and send the asbestos samples for analysis. The results will be presented, along with the sample locations, to FDEP and FOH. FOH will review and interpret the data set.
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