Rumpke Sanitary Landfill, more colloquially known as Mount Rumpke or Rumpke Mountain, is one of the largest

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

s in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

located in Colerain Township, Hamilton County, north of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It is owned by Rumpke Consolidated Companies, Inc. and occupies over of a tract of land that the company owns. The landfill receives 2 million tons (2 kg) of household and industrial

waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...

s annually. Mount Rumpke is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

and the highest landform in

Hamilton County, Ohio Hamilton County is located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 830,639, making it the third-most populous county in Ohio. The county seat and largest city is Cincinnati. The county i ...

, clearly visible from

U.S. Route 27 U.S. Route 27 (US 27) is a north–south United States Highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus is at US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 (I-69) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. F ...

. It is the largest landfill in the state of Ohio and the sixth largest in the United States. It is sometimes claimed that it is the highest point in Ohio, but in fact there are higher elevations in many Ohio counties.

History

Company

In the 1930s, Barney and Bill Rumpke collected

garbage Garbage, trash, rubbish, or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or gaseous wastes, or toxic waste produc ...

from their neighbors without charge in the neighborhood of

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

in Cincinnati. Most of the waste was food scraps, which they fed to their hogs on their hog farm. Eventually, officials told them that it was unsanitary, so they stopped feeding the garbage to the pigs although their neighbors wanted them to continue to remove their garbage. Therefore, they sold their hogs and charged money to take the garbage away, creating their trash business. The Rumpke Landfill was started in 1945 and has expanded today to occupy over of land. As of 2010, Rumpke may still be considered a family operation with over 70 employees being part of the family.

Landslide and fire

On March 9, 1996, a massive landslide occurred on the north side of the landfill. The north face of the mound cracked and fell forward, exposing of buried waste. A few months after the landslide, on May 23, 1996, lightning struck near the location of the landslide, causing a fire that lasted for six days. The crack was filled in and Rumpke paid one million dollars as a fine. Attorney General

Betty Montgomery Betty Montgomery (born April 3, 1948) is an American politician from the state of Ohio. A Republican, she formerly served as Ohio State Auditor and is the first woman Ohio Attorney General. Education Montgomery earned a Bachelor of Arts degre ...

called the incident "the largest trash landslide in Ohio history".

Expansion

In 2005, Rumpke was permitted to expand Rumpke Sanitary Landfill by , and it is expected to be below maximum capacity until 2022. Rumpke planned to nearly double the size of the landfill to produce a 785-acre landfill. Local zoning stymied this expansion, so Rumpke sued the township and obtained a ruling in 2010 that the dump was a public utility and therefore not subject to zoning. The township appealed to the Ohio State Supreme Court who, in September 2012, ruled in favor of the township. The decision states that Rumpke cannot proceed without approval of the Colerain Township Zoning Commission.

Elevated temperatures

On August 31, 2009, Rumpke reported elevated temperatures and poor gas quality at some of their methane recovery wells. This increased rate of oxidation has increased citizen complaints of odors in the area. Montauk Energy, Rumpke, Ohio EPA, U.S. EPA, Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services (HCDOES), Hamilton County Public Health (HCPH), and Colerain Township Fire have been involved in trying to resolve the issue.

Miscellany

A 14-year-old circus elephant and the world's largest Hershey's bar are some of the items buried in the landfill.

Landfill gas recovery

Three methane gas recovery facilities, owned by Montauk Energy Capital, operate on the landfill. The first plant opened in 1986, then the second opened in 1995, and the third opened in 2007. These facilities convert the methane gas into natural gas. The plants can recover about of

landfill gas Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane, ...

, making it the largest recovery operation of its kind in the world. Distributed by

Duke Energy Corporation Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Overview Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 megawatts of base-load and peak generation in ...

, the natural gas energy from the natural gas from the three facilities combined is enough to power 25,000 homes and businesses.

Air monitoring

Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services (HCDOES),

U.S. EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

, and Ohio EPA have been involved in monitoring the air onsite and surrounding the landfill for air pollutants. Levels of

hydrogen sulfide Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The unde ...

volatile organic compounds Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic compounds that have a high vapour pressure at room temperature Colloquially, "room temperature" is a range of air temperatures that most people prefer for indoor settings. It feels comfortable to a ...

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...

, and

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

are included in the measurements.

References

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External links

Rumpke Sanitary Landfill
Geography of Hamilton County, Ohio Landfills in the United States