FIRE AT MONA GREEN WASTE SITE • Mona Firefighters work on putting out fire at green waste site. The fire was started by Mona City but was a nuisance for nearby neighbors.
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Mona's green waste dump site is now closed.
The closure came following city council meeting Tuesday where Sadie Cunningham, acting as spokesperson for citizens who were concerned that they may lose homes and property to a wildfire, asked for the council to consider the safest way to address the problem of continuing fire flare ups.
The first fire came as a result of a council decision to burn a year's worth of pile up at the green waste site during the open burn window this past May.
"The original fire was started on May 17 by the Mona Fire Department and the city council," said Cunningham. "It was left to burn and smolder for about four or five days."
She said that the burning waste was left unattended, that there was no hose at the site to put out the fire in case of problems and that there was not an adult present to watch the fire.
"There was another flare up on or around the 25th of May," said Cunningham. "This was the most recent flare up."
By state law, burn permits may be issued between March 1 and May 30 and that burn window was open when the fire was started, said Jeff Hearty, council member.
The council, after listening to Cunningham and a few other residents, determined to close the gate to the site and not allow anymore dumping until they can come up with a solution to manage the site.
"Green waste will now need to be hauled to the Juab county landfill. It will not be accepted in a resident's garbage can," said Jeff Hearty, council member.
Cunningham passed out a few pages of social site comments made by herself and other community members, both pro and con, who use the site. Some were concerned with safety and others wanted the site kept open.
In addition, she shared photos with the council and those in attendance at the meeting. Those photos were taken of the green waste site when it was first being burned, the daily smoldering and the final burn when the pile blazed up again.
"What are we doing to assure the safety of my home?" she asked. "I request that either my house or that pile be watched."
She said the pile of green waste the community fathers had determined to burn was two stories high when it was set ablaze.
She was not seeking to have the green waste site closed but was interested in finding a way to manage it much better than was being done.
Cunningham asked if they had followed the restrictions imposed by the burn permit. For example, she asked, the day the burn was started had the fire clearing index been checked?
Open burning is a source of air pollution that is regulated by the Division of Air Quality (DAQ). There are statewide rules in place that regulate open burning activities to help minimize emissions and ensure that the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) are met. Recent modifications to these rules changed the open burn periods and included a statewide requirement to obtain a permit prior to burning.
The clearing index is a measure of the atmospheric mixing and wind speed. A clearing index of 500 or less is considered poor atmospheric ventilation.
John Sutherland, Mona City Fire Chief, said he had written the burn permit and Hearty said he had checked the clearing index.
He said the city should just close the site.
"I was opposed to the proposal to burn the waste from the beginning," said Jeff Smith, council member.
He had told other council members, when it was first proposed that they burn the refuse at the site, that it not be done. In fact, he informed the council that he wanted to be out of town when it was done. Because of his job, he has concerns with air quality.
"I live on that street," he said.
Hearty said that it was his idea to burn the green waste site and, by doing so, to clear away the old waste from last year. He said that he accepted full responsibility for conducting the burn and for the result.
Molli Graham, council member, said that she would not let Hearty accept all the blame because the majority of the council voted in favor of the burn.
In fact, they had even thought they might host a hot dog and marshmallow roast though that idea lost favor.
The green waste site was built on top of an old dairy site, said Allen Pay, water master for the city and landfill operator for the county.
"It will always have heat," he said. "We stirred it and put three water trucks of water on it."
Frank Riding, council member, said that new stuff needed to stop being added to the old so that there would not be additional green waste, which generates its own heat, at the site.
"The best thing to do is to haul it away," said Sutherland.
Another consideration should be addressed, said Smith. Care needed to be taken to not contaminate the springs where water was obtained.
Cunningham said the green waste site was a good idea but the council needed to figure out a way to control what was being dumped, managing the piles and finding a solution, other than burning, for managing the waste long term.
It was important to come up with a more effective plan, said Cunnigham, because she knew how quickly fire could get out of hand.
"I watched 200,000 acres in Alaska burn for two weeks," she said.
It was suggested that the site be monitored when it was open or to have it open just on Saturday when someone could be on site to monitor it.
"We don't have the manpower or the resources to monitor the site," said Graham.
Cunningham said she had even observed a person shooting at the piles of waste, using them for target practice, and had yelled at that person in order to get them to stop.
"The fire was only 50-feet from my home," said Cunningham. "It is still hot on the south end of the pile."
No one wanted to breathe smoke from a smoldering pile of green waste for days on end and her children had been forced to do that.
Unfortunately, she said, the site had become a dumping ground for some uncooperative citizens who added waste that was not green and put refuse in areas where it was not to be piled.
"I'm sorry that it has come to this," she said. "But I knew I could come here and be treated with respect."
"We will close the site tonight," said Graham.
Hearty said that he, personally, would go to the area and lock the gate so that the site could no longer be accessed.
