Chattanooga: Summit landfill passes methane test

Residential areas around the old Summit landfill passed recent tests for potentially dangerous methane gas, Chattanooga city officials said.

Workers checked 350 buildings and parcels of land for the gas, said Jerry Stewart, director of the city’s waste resources division under the Department of Public Works. He said the city wanted to ensure that methane had not spread to properties within 500 feet of the landfill, which closed in 1999.

One of the places tested for methane showed a trace amount of the gas initially, but no methane was detected in a second reading, according to a letter from Stantec Consulting Services Inc., which did the study.

Even the small amount of methane first found in the testing was far from being near the “action level” determined by city officials, the letter stated.

Mr. Stewart said the testing — conducted in June — was prompted by relatively high methane readings on gas probes. If methane escaped the landfill and was trapped in an area, it could be a safety hazard, he said.

“It could build up ... to a level high enough that could be explosive,” he said. “(But) you usually are going to smell it before it gets to those kind of levels.”

Mr. Stewart said officials will examine the landfill’s 50-or-so gas wells and its flare, which burns off methane collected from the site.

In addition, they now will check the gas probes every week, he said.

“If we’re still having excessively high readings, then we will either add additional wells or what we call barrier trenches that (keep) the gas from going off site,” he said.

Richard Beeland, spokesman for Mayor Ron Littlefield, said the test findings were anticipated.

“It’s (methane) a naturally occurring process in any landfill,” he said. “It’s just we wanted to make sure that it was OK.”

Phyllis McKee, whose home was tested and who has lived near the old landfill for 25 years, said the stench was terrible when the facility was operating.

“It was horrible,” she said. “I haven’t smelled anything lately.”