Maryland Department of Environment inspection reports show the same permit operating violations month after month, year after year.

The following is an exerpt from a speech be area resident Diane Burrier to the Harford County Council at a council meeting in Sept 2007 describing what constitutes violations according to the MDE operating permit and pointing to the aerial photo diagram to show the violations.

       “When I spoke at the council meeting early this past summer I handed out photos showing of results of day to day violations of the operating permit occuring at this facility.  Some of you may not be familiar with what the operating permit is and what it covers specifically.  I’m going to read just a few items from this facilities permit so that you may have a clear understanding of what constitutes a violation.  For instance, under Daily cover (pg. 15 of 19 of permit) the permit says the following

A uniform compacted layer of clean earth at least 6 inches in depth, or an approved cover material of a thickness specified by the Department, shall be placed over exposed solid waste by the end of each day’s operation, or more frequently as may be determined by the Department.

This simply means the garbage must be covered at the end of each day with a 6 inch layer of clean earth or an Alternate Daily Cover Material may be used to cover the waste.
If you look at this Aerial photo taken of the landfill on September 25, 2007 at 6:00 pm (after the facility closed) you will see an enormous amount of uncovered waste. (note: white chemical powder waste from a chemical company in Havre de Grace spread all over the place, Homeowners area with piles of waste and a pile of ash, and even the commercial area where the Alternate Daily Cover is used but is insufficient to cover the total amount of garbage collected there). All of these are considered violations of the current operating permit.

Another Example: Intermediate Cover (page 15 of 19 of permit) the permit states:

A uniform compacted layer of clean earth not less than one foot in depth shall be placed over each portion of a lift not later than one month following completion of that lift.

If I can draw your attention to the aerial photo again, this time looking at the Southern side, you can see it is made up of a variety of lifts and you can see from the photos taken on the ground on August 29, 2007, that there is a large amount of uncovered trash on these lifts and they are NOT covered with the required one foot of clean earth, in fact, some areas aren't or weren't ever covered, you can tell by the size of the weeds growing all around this uncovered trash that these lifts have been like this for many months. This is a clear violation of this facilities operating permit.

Finally, there is the regulation pertaining to Grading and Drainage, (pg. 16 of 19 of permit) The permit states:

The disposal site shall be graded and drained to:
Minimize runoff onto the fill area of the sanitary landfill
Prevent erosion and ponding within the fill areas and
Drain water from the surface

If you look at the aerial photo you can see the areas on the Southern side that clearly show deep gullies which is the result of erosion.  If you look at the photos taken on the ground on August 29, 2007, and June 21, 2007, you can clearly see deep gullies and the leachate ponding that occurred.  These are all examples of permit violations.”

Printable .doc files of transcribed reports of MDE inspections at Scarboro Landfill.
Missing dates indicate no inspection.

New reports from 2007-2008 will be posted soon. These reports show nothing has changed.

June 21, 2007 report
May 23, 2007 complaint
May 23, 2007 remarks and report
May 23, 2007 report
Apr 26, 2007 report
March 23, 2007 report
Jan 22, 2007 report
Dec 21, 2006 report
Nov 20, 2006 report
Sept 28, 2006 report
Aug 25, 2006 report
July 19, 2006 report
June 6, 2006 report
May 19, 2006 report
Feb 21, 2006 report
Jan 27, 2006 report
Dec 22, 2005 report
Nov 7, 2005 report
Sept 16, 2005 report
July 22, 2005 report
May 5, 2005 report
March 7, 2005 complaint
Mar 7, 2005 report