As builders continue to gut Chinese drywall in some of the estimated 35,000 Florida homes that contain the tainted material, state environmental officials have come up with interim guidelines on how to dispose of it.

Following them, however, may be a challenge for landfill operators, said Lindsey Sampson, Lee County solid waste director.

Garbage is disposed of according to specific categories and Chinese drywall doesn’t clearly fall into any of them. The defective drywall can come to a landfill mixed in a load of several tons of other garbage and will be impossible to separate out, Sampson said.

The guidelines are not set in stone and it is unclear when and what will be a final solution to the Chinese drywall disposal problem, said Marguerite Jordan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, the agency that came up with the guidelines.

“This is an evolving project. As additional information and/or research becomes available, there may be a need to revise the interim guidelines,” Jordan wrote in an e-mail to The News-Press.

But the solution will probably not include developing separate landfills for Chinese drywall, she said.

There are an estimated 7,500 homes with the drywall in Southwest Florida and Sampson is trying to figure out just how much will come to the county’s Lee/Hendry County Landfill.

The drywall was imported and used across the country from about 2004 to 2007. The drywall emits sulfur compounds that corrode air conditioning coils, some electrical wires and other metal objects in the home.

Many residents in these homes complain of health problems from respiratory ailments to nosebleeds.

The state Department of Health, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Consumer Product Safety Commission are trying to determine whether the levels of gases emitted are a health hazard.

The EPA has confirmed elements found in the drywall, including strontium, sulfur and traces of elements of acrylic paint, may be a health hazard.

But the state environmental protection department doesn’t consider Chinese drywall a hazardous waste, Jordan said.

Yet the department recommends the drywall should be routed to specific landfills that:

• Are lined with clay or other material;

• Preferably have gas collection and control systems;

• Cover the drywall debris daily with several inches of soil.

The county opened a new construction and demolition debris section of the Lee/Hendry Landfill in December, and drywall would typically fall into that category.

But the state doesn’t want the Chinese drywall sent to construction and demolition waste sites.

When tons of the drywall was sent to several sites in northwest Florida in the cleanup after the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes, some had severe problems with hydrogen sulfide odors, the state guidelines memo said.

“In some cases, the concentrations of hydrogen sulfide were a potential health concern to residents living near these facilities,” the memo said.

The drywall in a landfill will emit higher amounts of gases than drywall in a home because of bacterial decomposition and humidity, Jordan said.

The problem is many construction and demolition sites may not be lined, are not designed to handle excess levels of hydrogen sulfide gas and do not cover waste.

The state prefers a Class I landfill, which has a lining, covers waste and often has a gas control system.

A Class I landfill takes general non-hazardous, commercial and industrial waste.

The Lee/Hendry landfill has a Class I section lined with a combination clay/plastic “geomembrane” and covers the waste with six inches of soil daily, Sampson said.

But a truck driver hauling tons of construction waste containing Chinese drywall may not inform the landfill he’s carrying it or he may not know, Sampson said. So it could end up in the construction and debris section instead.

William Chaika, CEO of Hammer Construction, with an office in Cape Coral, said the interim regulations are inadequate.

“That’s too squishy. There are too much ‘like to haves’ in that,” he said. “It’s pretty unenforceable.”

The state is going to have to make some tough decisions, Chaika said.

“They are going to have to lay out clear policy and procedures,” he said. “You can’t put that on the back of the landfill operator or even companies disposing of the material.”

Sampson doesn’t believe the state should make mandatory new disposal rules specifically for drywall.

“It’s one thing if you’re living with the stuff every day,” he said. “It’s another thing if putting it in disposal cell for perpetuity, so to speak.”

The current state guidelines are not mandatory, but the state warns construction and demolition disposal facilities that continue to accept the drywall without covering it up may face increased inspections and testing. The state DEP would like to know just how much is still out there statewide. The Drywall Task Force lead by the state Department of Health is researching shipping and distribution.

The EPA has confirmed elements found in the drywall, including strontium, sulfur and traces of elements of acrylic paint, may be a health hazard.

But the state environmental protection department doesn’t consider Chinese drywall a hazardous waste, Jordan said.

Yet the department recommends the drywall should be routed to specific landfills that:

• Are lined with clay or other material;

• Preferably have gas collection and control systems;

• Cover the drywall debris daily with several inches of soil.

The county opened a new construction and demolition debris section of the Lee/Hendry Landfill in December, and drywall would typically fall into that category.

But the state doesn’t want the Chinese drywall sent to construction and demolition waste sites.

When tons of the drywall was sent to several sites in northwest Florida in the cleanup after the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes, some had severe problems with hydrogen sulfide odors, the state guidelines memo said.

“In some cases, the concentrations of hydrogen sulfide were a potential health concern to residents living near these facilities,” the memo said.

The drywall in a landfill will emit higher amounts of gases than drywall in a home because of bacterial decomposition and humidity, Jordan said.

The problem is many construction and demolition sites may not be lined, are not designed to handle excess levels of hydrogen sulfide gas and do not cover waste.

The state prefers a Class I landfill, which has a lining, covers waste and often has a gas control system.

A Class I landfill takes general non-hazardous, commercial and industrial waste.

The Lee/Hendry landfill has a Class I section lined with a combination clay/plastic “geomembrane” and covers the waste with six inches of soil daily, Sampson said.

But a truck driver hauling tons of construction waste containing Chinese drywall may not inform the landfill he’s carrying it or he may not know, Sampson said. So it could end up in the construction and debris section instead.

William Chaika, CEO of Hammer Construction, with an office in Cape Coral, said the interim regulations are inadequate.

“That’s too squishy. There are too much ‘like to haves’ in that,” he said. “It’s pretty unenforceable.”

The state is going to have to make some tough decisions, Chaika said.

“They are going to have to lay out clear policy and procedures,” he said. “You can’t put that on the back of the landfill operator or even companies disposing of the material.”

Sampson doesn’t believe the state should make mandatory new disposal rules specifically for drywall.

“It’s one thing if you’re living with the stuff every day,” he said. “It’s another thing if putting it in disposal cell for perpetuity, so to speak.”

The current state guidelines are not mandatory, but the state warns construction and demolition disposal facilities that continue to accept the drywall without covering it up may face increased inspections and testing. The state DEP would like to know just how much is still out there statewide. The Drywall Task Force lead by the state Department of Health is researching shipping and distribution .

Source