HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood toured the former Ordot dump on Thursday to get additional information on the facility’s condition and learn about its operation and maintenance. She visited various areas at the now-capped former dump facility, including its leachate collection and removal system and areas where water leaks and seeps had been discovered.
The former dump site is overseen by the federal receiver, Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc., as part of an ongoing partial consent decree.
Local solid waste services were placed under federal receivership in 2008 by the District Court, a consequence of the 2002 federal lawsuit to force the closure of the Ordot dump over environmental concerns.
The court eventually turned over day-to-day trash collection and disposal services to the Guam Solid Waste Authority in 2019, but held that GBB would stay responsible for mitigation efforts at the former dump site. Local agencies, federal authorities and the receiver have been working toward a complete termination of the receivership.
Harvey Gershman, a representative for the receiver, said last week that he is targeting July 1, 2024, as the end date for the receivership. He noted, however, that the court holds final authority over that decision.
Federal and local authorities joined the chief judge and GBB officials for the tour Thursday. GBB representative Chris Lund took Tydingco-Gatewood to the place where a leak was identified near Dero Road, which runs adjacent along part of the former dump site.
The receiver provided updated estimates for the dump’s post-closure costs last year, which ran significantly higher than the prior estimate of $27.7 million. This change was partly attributed to increasing leachate quantities year over year since 2018.
However, after the Guam Waterworks Authority repaired leaks along Dero Road, leachate volumes began to decrease.
But GWA General Manager Miguel Bordallo noted Thursday that leachate levels exceeded the projected maximum annual amount as far back as two years after the cap was placed over the former dump. Bordallo was one of the participants on the tour.
“The problem with the stormwater, even if the leaks weren’t there, still seems to be an issue,” he said.
That concern would come up again shortly afterward, when officials were discussing a couple of seeps discovered at the western side of the former dump site.
“We identified these in November of last year and, since that time, we started weekly inspections of them when we got closer into the wet season for their condition. … Not long after the leaks were fixed, and the changes occurred, these eventually stopped seeping groundwater,” Lund said.
“There’s a correlation there. … We’re continuing to gather data in the wet season, finishing up in December, but this stopped when those things were corrected,” he added.
Pathway and leachate flow
What “remains to be found and solved,” according to GSWA General Manager Irvin Slike, is the pathway the water took.
“You’ll notice the waterline break was on the other side of (Ordot dump) and it seems like a direct correlation with the western side. We would like to find out what that pathway was and try to block it off so that any future precipitation or any other rain event wouldn’t be able to do the same thing that the GWA waterline leaks seemed to have caused,” Slike said.
Karen Ueno, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the federal agency is “a little more cautious” on whether seeps have actually stopped, and the agency agrees that there appears to be some sort of pathway that hasn’t been fully understood and addressed.
“The GWA leak had to make its way down to the system over here,” Ueno said. “We think it might be from the grassy soil area in Dero Road. We’re not certain. I think that’s what needs to be a little bit more studied (or) investigated.”
Tydingco-Gatewood said officials should determine that quickly if the ultimate goal is to do away with the receivership.
Bordallo said GWA has the ability to do dye-trace studies in cases where there may be illicit discharge, and the utility is ready to do that as soon as possible at the former dump. Ueno indicated there may be other methods to determine what is causing changes in leachate, but that would fall in the realm of technical discussions.
Lund noted that from July through October, after the waterlines were fixed, the receiver observed a 54% reduction in leachate flows despite a corresponding increase in rainfall.
“And our leachate flows are back to within our design parameters of what this facility was designed to handle,” Lund said.
While GWA concedes that there was a drop in leachate after the leaks were repaired, Bordallo reiterated that leachate flow exceeded design parameters two years after the cap on the dump was constructed.
“It’s clear, with the data going that far back, even though the graph will show that the peaks have come down, the fact that the peaks still exist when rainfall happens indicates there is a connection between stormwater and leachate, which we believe there probably shouldn’t be,” Bordallo said.
Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. receiver representative Chris Lund, left, explains to U.S. District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, center, how they will tour the facility during a site visit of the Ordot dump on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, in Ordot.
