[font=Times New Roman][size=3]The rotten-egg smell from crumbling, wet drywall led to a $3 million taxpayer-paid cleanup in northeast Ohio and put state lawmakers on notice that debris from construction sites is anything but inert. [/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]House and Senate leaders want to pass new rules for construction and demolition debris landfills -- now allowed within 50 feet of a home -- before a ban on new dumps expires at the end of the year. Both landfill operators and environmentalists have some quibbles but say the bill is a big improvement. [/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]"It gives us a lot more controls that we really needed early on," said Erv Ball, assistant director for environmental health at the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. [/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Local health boards license the facilities. Ohio now has about 70 construction landfills with looser regulations than regular landfills because they were meant to hold only bricks, wood, concrete and similar debris. But a September study by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency found high levels of lead, arsenic and cyanide leaking from the sites as rain fell. [/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]The U.S. EPA in April started a $3 million Superfund cleanup of a construction landfill in Warren, where crushed drywall mixed with rain to form hydrogen sulfide gas, a toxic substance that smells like rotten eggs. Work should be done next month, the agency said. [/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Under the bill, construction landfills would no longer accept debris that's pulverized beyond recognition -- easing worries that household trash or other toxins would sneak into the sites. The facilities also would have to be 100 feet from streams and wetlands and 500 feet from homes, drinking water wells, parks, state forests, natural areas, lakes and historic landmarks.[/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Source: Cincinnati Post[/size][/font]