WHITNEY ROYSTER Star-Tribune environmental reporter | Posted: Thursday, September 9, 2004 12:00 am
JACKSON - Neighbors in Buffalo are irked because a large pile of old guardrails appeared on a lot in their subdivision last week, smelling of possible toxic substances.
"It looks like overnight, I'm next to the city dump," neighbor Joanna Taylor said. "When they dumped those side loaders, it felt like the earth was shaking."
Taylor said last week, about 10 dump trucks filled a lot in her neighborhood with old guardrails, taken from a highway construction project outside Buffalo. The guardrails smelled of creosote, a toxic chemical once used to preserve wood, she said.
"The smell from the creosote was so bad, I had to come home and take a pill," Taylor said.
Ames Construction Inc., of Minnesota, is in charge of the project.
Todd Goderstad, vice president and general counsel for Ames, said someone purchased the old guardrails and arranged to have them stored on the lot on Fourth Avenue in Buffalo on a temporary basis.
"He wanted us to bring it there so he could band these guardrail posts into bundles and either use them on his father's sheep ranch or resell them," Goderstad said. "My understanding is these materials were reviewed by the (Department of Environmental Quality) and there was no problem with this. … We sold the material, and are putting it where we said we would put it."
Goderstad said the guardrails are from about 1946. He said his workers haven't smelled anything.
"I would guess (the guardrails) were probably treated with something," he said. "Is it a horrible environmental nightmare waiting to happen? I don't think so."
Dave Finley, administrator of solid and hazardous wastes for the DEQ, said Tuesday his agency was "following up on it," but said it sounded more like a nuisance than an environmental hazard.
"There's a difficult line that is not real clearly defined," he said. "There's a lot of people who pile stuff on their property, and we don't regulate those as solid waste requiring a permit. … We typically don't bring an action against those kinds of facilities for violating the solid waste storage facilities because really what's being created is a nuisance."
Finley said timber treated with creosote that long ago has been weathered and exposed, "then you don't have dripping, soaking creosote coming off it anymore."
Steve Kozisek, Johnson County sheriff, said the problem will likely have to be handled through the homeowners association.
"It's really a subdivision violation and they, through their homeowners, can address that civilly," he said. "There is old creosote on them but the DEQ is not concerned with that seeping into the ground."
Taylor, however, thinks Ames has a responsibility to have a bond with the guardrail buyers, to make sure they do what they say they will do.
"When you are a big corporation and you have a contract you don't hope that people are going to do what you want - you have a bond," she said. "If you're disposing of hazardous waste, you don't choose someone who isn't going to be bonded."
Goderstad said he thought the guardrails would be on the property for 30 days at most.
"If there's a problem and it turns out to be a real problem," he said, "I'm sure we'll go in and remove it."
Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@trib.com.