Dive Brief:
- A shuttered landfill in Washington received a temporary soil cover as part of a plan to extinguish an underground fire. The Department of Ecology approved a three-step plan to put an end to the fire immediately, before the flames reach hazardous materials.
- The blaze has been burning at the Pasco Sanitary landfill in Franklin County, WA since November of 2013. The fire measures 25 feet in diameter.
- On June 23, carbon dioxide will be injected into the ground in an attempt to obliterate oxygen near the fire.
Dive Insight:
The third step is a monitoring network to measure the effectiveness of the soil cover and carbon dioxide injection. The network could also provide information on the impact on the fire of a vapor extraction system being used to remove contaminated air at a nearby industrial site.
The landfill is a federal Superfund site. The only local government responsible for cleanup is Franklin County, although businesses and federal government agencies are named. The event highlights an ongoing trend towards landfill fire training.
