Warwick Township wants more direct communication with Waste Management when there are problems at the site.
That after the municipality’s Technical Review Committee discovered there had been an incident at Twin Creeks on Oct. 14, 2016 but Warwick was never told.
Ministry of the Environment Spokesman Gary Wheeler says landfill staff noticed the liquid in a ditch at the oldest part of the landfill. A contractor removed it, excavated the area and found no additional problems.
A nearby sedimentation pond had “elevated levels of boron and unionized ammonia” which is found in landfill leachate.
Wheeler says there was no off site impact.
Peter Pickfield, Warwick’s lawyer who deals with Twin Creeks environmental issues, says the township didn’t receive a call about the incident and only learned of it in March 2017, when the Technical Review Committee was looking at Waste Management’s year end report.
Pickfield says “there was no breach of reporting” because the company wasn’t required to tell the municipality.
“From the township’s point of view, usually the company is really good about reporting, this one has slipped through the cracks.”
The municipality has asked for more direct communication for on site incidents and Pickfield says the operator has “responded positively.”
Waste Management has also agreed to approach the MOE with the township to have a full-time inspector stationed at Twin Creeks as one of the conditions for expanding the site.
A year ago, the ministry scaled back inspections to once a month.  Pickfield say monthly inspections are “not sufficient for a landfill of this size.”