Freedom site cleanup discussed at Charleston City Council meeting

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A discussion was held at Charleston’s City Finance Committee’s meeting Monday night to discuss the next step of the cleanup of the Freedom Industries spill site and potentially depositing the waste in a city landfill.

Patty Hickman of the DEP’s Division of Land Restoration said that disposing of the waste in a landfill is the best option, especially to save the Elk River.

“The reason we think this is a good option is it gets the material away from the river and puts it into a landfill that’s monitored and that’s intended for being the location for the disposal of solid waste,” Hickman said.

Cit Manager David Molgaard was satisfied with the report the DEP gave, explaining both the procedure and the harms that could result.

“They did a very nice job of explaining to the city council what is involved in the process and the potential risks,” Molgaard said.

He did explain that the final decision as to whether the waste would be deposited in the landfill is up to the landfill operator.

“This is about taking the material to the Charleston landfill,” Molgaard said. “That landfill is operated by Waste Management. They would ultimately be the authority in deciding whether or not this actually goes into the landfill.”

Molgaard was satisfied that precautions were in place and that the process would ensure that drinking water is not contaminated any further. Hickman described what’s going on right now in reviewing Freedom’s plan.

“Right now we’re reviewing an excavation plan that Freedom submitted to us,” she said. “We’ve made some comments and we have some discussions going on with them over how they’ll do some of their testing after they take the soil to the landfill.”