Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill cited for leachate leak into Speers Run

The state Department of Environmental Protection has cited the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill for leachate that leaked from the Rostraver facility on Wednesday and made its way into Speers Run.

The DEP is investigating. It was unable to estimate the volume of contaminated liquid that escaped, resulting in discoloration of the local stream.

DEP inspectors went to the landfill on Thursday after receiving a complaint late that morning about the leachate — liquid that picks up contamination when it comes into contact with waste material.

Leachate must continually be removed from the landfill. It normally is stored in tanks before being trucked to treatment plants, the DEP said.

According to the inspection report, DEP learned from staff with landfill operator Noble Environmental that the leak happened at about 2 p.m. Wednesday, but the company didn’t provide required notice of the incident to the DEP.

The cause was believed to be a faulty screw cap on the end of a clean-out pipe, the report notes.

Noble told the inspectors it “immediately proceeded to turn off flow” to the pipe and believed “it only leaked for a few minutes,” according to the report.

Messages seeking comment were left late Friday afternoon for the landfill and Noble and weren’t immediately returned.

Inspectors determined that the leachate pooled outside a containment area for the leachate storage tanks and then apparently flowed around the entrance to the landfill office parking lot and onto a gravel lot before entering a stormwater pond discharge and then a tributary to Speers Run.

Inspectors said, when they arrived at the site Thursday, they noticed a brown discoloration and sheen on Speers Run, along Johnson Avenue. They said the discoloration “had started to clear up by the time we left. Cleanup of the gravel lot and around the clean-out pipe had already started and some of the contaminated material had already been disposed in the landfill.”

At the landfill’s leachate load-out area, the inspectors found a leaky valve, a leaky port hole and a tank that was overflowing into the containment area.

The DEP requested that repairs be made to all leaks and breaches, that the affected area be thoroughly cleaned, that contaminated soil be remediated and that absorbent pads or booms be placed to capture the sheen entering the tributary to Speers Run.

The DEP inspectors cited the landfill for: release of leachate onto the ground and into waterways; failure to immediately phone the DEP and Westmoreland County emergency management officials about the release; and failure to maintain equipment.

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .