The following was testimony provided by Jeff Andrade, president of the Piney Orchard Community Association, regarding the proposed Tolson & Associates landfill.

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Good evening. My name is Jeff Andrade and I am President of the Piney Orchard Community Association. 

I am here with many of my neighbors from the Piney Orchard Community, and I would like for them to stand up at this time. I would also note that the Association and its over 10,000 residents will be filing written comments on the record opposing this permit.

Omissions and Misrepresentations by the Applicant

With over 4,500 residential units and 10,000 residents, the Piney Orchard Community is the largest development in Anne Arundel and one of the largest in the entire state of Maryland. But reading through the 2 volumes of the Phase III Engineering Study one might never know that this community is immediately adjacent to the proposed landfill site,

None of the maps included in the application include the several hundred homes in Piney Orchard community near the proposed site (note the satellite map). These include Summit Chase - 118 homes Fieldstone Farm Apartments - 187 homes

Maple Ridge – 64 homes

Additionally, the large subdivisions on the north side of Strawberry Lake Way, such as Piney Station, Pinedale Courts, and Settlers’ View are also close to the site as are nearly 100 single- family homes north of the Greater Odenton Recreation Council Park which is also immediately adjacent to the site. The Eden Brook Condominium complex, which is surrounded by Piney Orchard is also close to the proposed site. None of these are referenced on the maps in the applications.

Despite this considerable amount of residential development in and around Piney Orchard, the Site Location Map referenced on G1 of Volume II of the application, dates back to 1979. The Site Vicinity Map on that same document, does not include any of the Piney Orchard development. Section 4.4.5.2 of the Executive Summary, references only the Four Seasons community, and on page 29 the application incorrectly references Piney Orchard as part of that community and infers that we are party to a Community Benefits Agreement reached with the Four Seasons association. That is completely false. The Piney Orchard Community Association is tens of times larger than Four Seasons and has never been party to any agreement with the Cunningham organization on the operation of the current mining and landfill site.

Piney Orchard Community Association is owner of Parcel 45 which is directly adjacent to Parcel 239 owned by Capitol Associates, where the proposed landfill site is to be located. The Property Owners Map which appears as Item E2 in Volume 2 of the application, also fails to show the considerable development along Strawberry Lake Way directly north of the proposed site, nor does it show the number of large subdivsions which I noted earlier which have been built in the last several years

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Problems With the Process

I would also briefly like to raise concerns about the complete lack of community involvement in the consideration of this application over the last seven years. While MDE has had numerous meetings and correspondence with the applicant on this proposal, which many in the community had assumed was dead, we are now forced to go through volumes of materials in a very short timeframe, and under the pretense that MDE has already made a preliminary decision to grant the permit.

It is bewildering that as the owner of adjacent properties and as an organization representing over 10,000 people in the adjacent community that the Piney Orchard Community Association has never been consulted over the last seven years by either the applicant or the Department of Environment regarding such a substantial proposal.

Noxious Odors and Dust

I support the comments to be presented by Crofton First member, Tim Berkhoff, particularly with regard to the concerns over fugitive dust.

However, I would like to raise a major concern of hydrogen sulfide emission. One of the major waste components in the proposed landfill would be drywall, which is composed of gypsum. Landfills such as the one proposed, with their wet anaerobic conditions are ideal environment for the conversion of dissolved sulfate contained in drywall to hydrogen sulfide.

This gas has an awful stench, the unmistakable smell of rotting eggs, which can be detected for miles even at very low levels.

But this known and well-documented problem should not be new to those of you at the MDE. Just last year, the Department tried to respond to numerous complaints of hydrogen sulfide odors coming from the County’s Millersville Landfill site. In the 1990’s, severe odor problems at the Sandy Hill landfill in Prince George’s County lasted for months and area residents were forced to seal their homes. Residents living near the Al-Ray and Brandywine Enterprises landfills in Maryland have reported significant negative impact in their communities due to the combined effect of hydrogen sulfide and fugitive dust, so bad in fact that residents were forced to stay indoors for much of the year, and could not even enjoy a backyard cookout on their property, and those living nearest to these sites reported severe headaches and nausea.

People are very sensitive to smell of hydrogen sulfide. According to the US Public Health Service, hydrogen sulfide is detectable at 0.1 part per million (ppm.), so the stench is both noticeable as well as pervasive over a wide area.

Besides the stench, Hydrogen Sulfide irritates the eyes, nose, and throat and can cause nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, and chest pain. In high enough doses, it is lethal. At 250 ppm, the gas cause irritation of the mucous membranes, bronchitis and other respiratory ailments. And at 500 ppm it causes nausea, disorientation, coma, and severe toxicity and death at levels about 500 ppm.

Noise and Traffic

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On page 22, the application incorrectly assumes “receptors” or homes near the proposed site, have an assumed maximum height of 12 feet. However, the height of homes in the immediately Summit Chase subdivision are 28 to 30 feet high, as are those in the Pinedale Courts and Piney Station Subdivisions and the Fieldstone Farm apartments are over 40 feet high.

Thus, the assumptions upon which the noise calculations are made, are not only not correct they underestimate the height of the homes by 100 percent or more. Even with this flawed analysis, the applicants calculations show the projected noise levels are .1 dBA below the Anne Arundel County’s 60 dBA maximum threshold and over the 55 dBA average County threshold. Thus, it appears that based on the applicants own calculations that if the proper building height were used the noise levels would be above all allowable standards.

Pest Infestations

I would also like to briefly note that construction and demolition waste often brings with it pests that spread out from the landfill site. These include rats, which are common in demolition done in urban areas. They can include pests such as cockroaches, where an infestation at the Oak Avenue rubble landfill in Harford County affected 100 homes near the landfill.

Loss of Property Value

A real estate appraisal study cited in the White Paper entitled “Citizen Perspective on Siting Solid Waste Facilities” which was presented to the Maryland Solid Waste Task Force studied the effect of Maryland landfills on property values. In the case of a rubble landfill in Prince George’s County forum that the value of homes within a mile of the site were lowered by 10 percent.

As of the last valuation in January of this year, the total value of the over 4,500 homes in the Piney Orchard development was over $1.61 billion. Thus, a 10 percent decrease in value caused by the establishment of this new landfill would decrease the value of the housing inventory in Piney Orchard alone by over $161 million.

In addition to reducing individuals’ net worth, both the State and the County would receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost property tax revenue as a result.

Closing

In closing, I would like to note that the Board of Directors of the Piney Orchard voted 9-0 to oppose the granting of the permit for this proposed landfill. Given the proximity of residential housing in the area, which was not referenced in the application, and the other issues I have raised we urge the Department to reconsider its preliminary decision to approve this permit.