After years of pleas, clean air agency orders King County to test landfill air for arsenic

‘Is it safe for me to be here?’:

Decades ago, Leslie Morgan built her Renton dream home on a five-acre lot intending to live there forever. 

But often, Morgan said, she can’t stand to be inside it. 

A “nauseating” odor stemming from King County’s biggest landfill permeates through her residence and other homes that border the Maple Valley facility, which is known as the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill. 

“I’ve had friends come here that were planning on spending the night, and they just said ‘We can’t. We can’t do this. I don’t know how you live this way,” she said.

Residents from Renton, Maple Valley and Issaquah, who live near the 920-acre King County-owned landfill, have for years filed hundreds of complaints to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA). The neighbors beg for relief from the poor air quality they said disrupts their lives and health.

“It’s over 30 years of having to fight to be able to breathe clean air,” Morgan said. “Just feeling so helpless, and literally hopeless. And nobody listens, and nothing ever changes.”

Community members frequently report the smell of “sickening,” “gaseous,” and “toxic air” associated with landfill gas – a byproduct of decomposing trash, according to a KING 5 review of PSCAA records. Complaints describe their fears, as some residents claim the poor air quality triggers physical symptoms – such as asthma attacks, headaches, burning sinuses and other medical complications that have led to hospital visits. 

On the worst days, Morgan said she wakes up from a dead sleep with an intense headache caused by a “noxious, gaseous” odor filling her entire home. Her daughter, Jacquelyn Green, said the family is so fearful about potential health impacts, they called 9-1-1 more than once.  

“You’re wondering, ‘Is it safe for me to be here?… Do I need to wake the kids up? Do I need to get them out of the house? Is this safe?’” said Green, who grew up in Morgan’s home and is now raising her family in the same community.

More than the unbearable odors, Green and Morgan said they are most concerned about potential exposure to highly toxic chemicals in landfill gas that they can’t smell, like arsenic. 

PSCAA is now ordering the King County Solid Waste Division to test the Cedar Hills landfill for arsenic emissions in the air. The regulatory agency, which monitors air quality in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties, wants to know whether King County’s operations at the landfill are emitting arsenic levels that are dangerous to humans, according to the PSCAA administrative order issued on Nov. 3. 

It’s the first time the clean air agency has forced King County to analyze airborne arsenic emissions at the landfill, which has come under scrutiny for a years-long problem of too much arsenic – drawing attention from multiple regulatory agencies and concerns from landfill employees.

A KING 5 investigation in November 2023 found that for a decade, King County repeatedly discovered high levels of arsenic in the wastewater at Cedar Hills – violating state and local rules that exist to protect the environment and public health.   

Regulatory records show that elevated arsenic levels were discovered at Cedar Hills as part of King County’s process of managing its landfill gas. Landfill gas contains about 50% methane, 50% carbon dioxide and a small percentage of toxic chemicals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

To prevent hazardous chemicals from escaping into the atmosphere, landfills typically choose to burn the gas or convert it to be used as a renewable energy resource. Since 2009, a private company called Bio Energy Washington (BEW) has contracted with the county to capture the landfill gas and convert it into natural gas. The operation provides enough gas for about 19,000 homes each year, according to the company. 

That process of creating natural gas produces a liquid called “condensate,” which contains much of the arsenic that has historically led to regulatory trouble for both King County and the energy company. Since 2018, the King County Industrial Waste Program, which provides regulatory oversight of the landfill, has found Cedar Hills to be in “significant noncompliance” with its wastewater permit for discharging more arsenic than allowed into the county’s wastewater treatment plant. 

BEW and King County remain in a standoff – a legal battle – about who is responsible for causing and addressing the elevated arsenic. The county alleges that BEW’s industrial processes led to the elevated levels. BEW, which has shut down operations amid the lawsuit, claims King County’s landfill gas already contained too much arsenic when the company received it. 

Both the King County Public Health Department and the county’s Solid Waste Division said there is no public health risk from arsenic at the landfill. 

However, multiple landfill employees disagreed with their bosses, including three King County engineers who were closely involved in the county’s efforts to deal with the arsenic problem. They accused the county of failing to protect workers and the public from the highly toxic chemical and inadequately assessing the potential risk of exposure. 

‘They have no clue what they’re dealing with’:

Years before PSCAA ordered Cedar Hills to test for airborne arsenic emissions, landfill workers and members of the public identified a need for it and called for thorough air testing, according to King County records. 

In 2021, three King County employees filed whistleblower complaints to the King County Office of the Ombuds. The office investigates allegations of wrongdoing within the King County government. 

One of those complainants, Toraj Ghofrani, is a King County civil engineer who specializes in landfill gas and air quality. In his complaint, he accused his bosses of creating a “substantial and specific danger to public health and safety” and “concealing the truth.” 

County records reveal he was one of the core people King County tapped to investigate Cedar Hills’ arsenic problem. The other complainants included long-time King County Engineer Colleen Christensen, who supervised a team that tested the landfill water for hazardous chemicals like arsenic, and Feras Arnaout, a former King County engineer who worked as a Cedar Hills project manager. 

In the course of Ghofrani’s work to investigate the Cedar Hills arsenic problem, he said he made an “alarming” discovery that landfill gas was escaping into the air – the breathing zones of workers and the public. He said it concerned him because the “fugitive” landfill gas contained hazardous air pollutants, including arsenic 

“Any contamination in the air must be the number one priority,” Ghofrani said. “There is definitely a scientific blueprint that arsenic could be in landfill gas.”

Ghofrani documented the problem on camera and said he provided his bosses with proof that harmful chemicals were leaking into the ambient air. The videos he shared, according to Ghofrani, showed bubbling landfill gas in active areas of the landfill. 

But despite Ghofrani’s pleas, he said Cedar Hills management failed to sample or analyze the gas in the most affected areas of the landfill. 

“They have no clue what they’re dealing with,” he said. “One percent of landfill gas is all these chemicals that are deleterious to human health… We don’t even analyze them or sample them.”

In April 2021, the King County Solid Waste Division announced to Cedar Hills employees that in response to a worker’s concern about poor air quality and arsenic, they hired an independent consultant to conduct air quality testing at the facility. Leaders reported to workers that the sampling, which included an analysis of arsenic compounds, revealed landfill air quality remained within allowable limits – with “no identified risks to employees, contractors or neighbors.”  

Ghofrani said he had concerns about the accuracy of the county’s findings, claiming the Solid Waste Division did not use an “established analytical method” that would accurately and precisely detect arsenic in the air. 

“I knew that King County is basically hands off – is not doing anything in any meaningful way to address the exposure danger that workers are exposed to and at the same time, the exposure of the public that lives beyond the boundaries of the landfill,” he said.  

According to county records, the ombuds office hired an independent consultant to review complaints from Ghofrani and the two other King County engineers. In a draft 2022 report, the consultant noted there was evidence that supported the workers’ concerns about air quality, including an “inaccurate assessment of air quality impacts.”  But the consultant added she needed to gather more records before making a final determination. 

Jon Stier, King County’s principal deputy ombuds, said in a statement that the consultant did not produce a final version of the report. 

In late January, the ombuds office “discontinued” its nearly three-year review of Cedar Hills arsenic emission and discharge issues, without issuing findings. The office cited King County’s ongoing lawsuit with BEW as a key reason they could no longer move forward with the review. 

In a November interview, King County Solid Waste Director Pat McLaughlin defended the county’s methods of testing for airborne arsenic  – saying Cedar Hills deploys testing approaches that are informed by regulators and experts.

“We rely on the science and experience of experts to inform that, and will always do that,” he said. 

‘What’s happening to us isn’t right’:

In a Feb. 12 statement, Annie Kolb-Nelson, a King County Solid Waste Division spokesperson, wrote that King County is in compliance with PSCAA’s administrative order. 

She said the Solid Waste Division conducted the required testing in late January using “scientifically-sound methodology.” The county reports it is still awaiting the results, but leaders continue to emphasize their prior conclusions, which found no public health threat. 

“What we can confirm is that in a separate report produced by consultant firm WSP, which has experience in industrial hygiene, that employees were not exposed to airborne arsenic during their workday,” wrote Kolb-Nelson.  

She said the testing referenced in the consultant’s report took place over three weeks in December. Employee volunteers were equipped with wearable air monitoring devices to measure potential arsenic exposure “around their breathing zones during normal work activities over the course of their shift.” 

As for community concerns, Kolb-Nelson said the Solid Waste Division has taken steps to address air quality concerns from neighbors, including hosting bi-annual meetings and creating a 24/7 hotline to report issues and concerns.

“When issues are reported, operators follow up to determine potential causes and take action to address issues if they’re related to our operations,” she wrote. “The health and safety of employees and community members is our top priority.”

Morgan, who regularly documents her air quality struggles in complaints to regulators, said officials rarely investigate the complaints in a timely fashion. Often, she said, they don’t respond. 

It’s left her to troubleshoot in her own ways – going to extreme lengths to seal off her home from the outside air, like boarding up her exterior air vents. 

On the days with the most unbearable air quality, she said she tapes her doors shut, closes all the windows, and turns off the furnace.

“It’s exhausting. It’s just this overwhelming feeling that I don’t matter, that my environment doesn’t matter,” she said.  “That’s how so many people in my community feel.” 

Despite the stress of it all, she said she can’t imagine the thought of leaving the Renton home she built or the community of neighbors she fiercely defends. 

“What’s happening to us isn’t right, and I shouldn’t have to leave,” she said. “I have to keep fighting because to live this way and not say anything, I just can’t do that.”

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