Chris Rossi/The Gazette
Peter Karasik, section chief of Central Operations with the Department of Protection, Division of Solid Waste Services, talks about the land swap with the county by the Gude Landfill. Montgomery County and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission swapped roughly 17 acres of land near the decommissioned landfill Thursday for 16.5 acres of contaminated parkland along the landfill’s border, previously part of Rock Creek Park. Officials from the county’s Department of Environmental Protection say the discovery came as they begin to examine options for a state-mandated cleanup of the county’s oldest dump.
The Gude Landfill in Rockville will expand after Montgomery County environmental officials say they found acres of refuse under nearby parkland.
Montgomery County and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission swapped roughly 17 acres of land near the decommissioned landfill Thursday for 16.5 acres of contaminated parkland along the landfill’s border, previously part of Rock Creek Park. Officials from the county’s Department of Environmental Protection say the discovery came as they begin to examine options for a state-mandated cleanup of the county’s oldest dump.
“We certainly weren’t taken by surprise,” said Peter Karasik, section chief of Central Operations for the Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Solid Waste Services, which regulates the 56-year-old landfill. The landfill closed in 1982.
Despite reassurances by the county, those living nearby say the 100-acre landfill poses a potential public health hazard.
Trash deposits about 250 feet outside the northeast borders of the landfill were found during a study of the site, started in 2009 after the Maryland Department of the Environment conducted a review of the area’s water quality and found it below state standards, according to DEP records. The county acquired the land and gave two parcels of undeveloped and trash-free land nearby to the Department of Parks so the contaminated land could be included in cleanup efforts.
Karasik said the dumping on the parkland likely was accidental because there is no fence between the landfill and the park. He said estimates of how much trash is in the entire site — thought to be about 4.8 million tons — have not changed.
The county Planning Board, charged with overseeing the Department of Parks, unanimously approved the land exchange Thursday.
Further study by the county showed there are chemical and organic compounds in the groundwater beyond the borders of the landfill and in the nearby Derwood neighborhood at levels of concentration slightly beyond state standards, Karasik said. These include the compounds trichloroethene and vinyl chloride, which at certain levels can damage the immune system.
Deposits of lead, mercury and arsenic also were found on the landfill, but not in the nearby neighborhood.
Karasik said the compounds found, while at levels beyond state standards, do not pose an immediate public health risk mainly because nearby homes draw drinking water from a municipal water supply, not ground wells.
Trichologeothene concentrations were found at levels between 7.11 micrograms per liter and 43.9 microgram per liter. State standards say ground water shouldn’t rise above 5 micrograms per liter. Vinyl chloride was found at concentrations up to 30.5 micrograms per liter, above the state standard of 2 micrograms per liter. A microgram is 1,000 times smaller than a milligram.
A study commissioned by the Maryland Department of the Environment and released in January found the same results. This study also noted there have been no reported public health issues associated with the landfill.
Julia Tillery, a member of Gude Landfill Concerned Citizens, a group of homeowners from the Derwood Station and Hollybrooke neighborhoods, said the landfill is a serious threat, but that planned remediation efforts likely would stem that threat.
“They have contaminated our land and our water; to say it’s not a problem is wrong,” she said. “But I do think they’re on the right track.”
The county has identified six options to remediate further contamination around the landfill, according to a feasibility study commissioned by the state and county performed by EA Engineering, located in Sparks. These range from excavating trash from the landfill to creating an artificial barrier, known as a cap, around it.
These options vary in cost from $500,000 to $34 million.
While Montgomery County owns and maintains the dump, state environmental officials are charged with regulating it, Karasik said.
DEP representatives will submit its study to the Maryland Department of the Environment in November. The department is expected to outline for the county which option it must choose, said MDE spokesman Jay Apperson.
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