The Alabama county commission that’s inherited much of the responsibility for a 25-acre underground landfill fire, says the site of the blaze is likely to become a crime scene once the fire is out.
“In all likelihood I think that site will end up being a crime scene,” St. Clair County Commission Chairman Stan Batemon said Tuesday.
RELATED: How do you put out a landfill fire? Alabama county weighing options
The fire is burning mostly underground at the Environmental Landfill, Inc., facility in St. Clair County, between the Birmingham suburbs of Moody and Trussville. For more than six weeks, the blaze has blanketed many of the suburbs north of Birmingham with smoke, generating numerous complaints and health concerns among local residents.
“I feel if nothing else, it’s going to be a low end arson investigation,” Batemon said. “I think that’s going to happen. Who set the fires? Then I think beyond that, you’re going to see if there are things in there that are carcinogens or whatever.”
The landfill is only supposed to accept vegetative debris like fallen trees, but no one can say for certain what’s smoldering beneath the surface. That uncertainty is not sitting well with people whose homes and lungs have been inundated with smoke since the day after Thanksgiving.
“We want the fire out, and then we can go in and start this investigation,” Batemon said. “At that point in time, we lose control because it becomes a crime scene and you don’t go onto a crime scene unless you’re one of the investigators.”
Repeated efforts by AL.com to reach the landfill owners for comment have not been successful. When approached by AL.com last week, a representative at the landfill said they had been advised not to comment.
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which regulates landfills in Alabama, has pledged to investigate once the fire is put out.
ADEM Director Lance LeFleur told AL.com last week that the agency will investigate to see whether illegal open burning or unauthorized waste was disposed of at the site.
He also said the department was hampered by the fact that “green waste” landfills, like the one that is on fire, are not subject to the same oversight as the kind of landfills that accept household trash or construction and demolition waste.
“If it’s not a regulated entity, the only time that we can get involved in their operation is when there is a complaint that we investigate,” LeFleur said. “And if there is some violation, such as the unauthorized disposal of regulated waste, then we can be involved.”
Previous ADEM inspections of the site have found unauthorized waste, including tires, appliances and other, but LeFleur said the materials found after those inspections were removed.
The county has been receiving bids from outside contractors to put out the fire and expects to present multiple options to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey by the end of the week.
