State DNR supervisor reaffirms today that the city can dump Sinclair demolition debris in Mount Trashmore

A Department of Natural Resources supervisor on Thursday morning said there was no problem with the city of Cedar Rapids' plans to take demolition debris from the Sinclair plant site to the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency's Site 1 landfill - commonly called Mount Trashmore.

Joe Sanfillipo, who works out of the DNR's Manchester field office and who said he is very familiar with Mount Trashmore and the Sinclair site, said the city should “keep an eye on” drums identified in one of the Sinclair buildings during a 2007 environmental assessment as the demolition proceeds.

Sanfillipo added that Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, said the city plans to do exactly that.

The 2007 environmental report was conducted by engineering firm Howard R. Green Co. of Cedar Rapids for the city of Cedar Rapids in preparation for eventual demolition of the Sinclair plant and redevelopment of the site.

The June 2008 flood and fires in the abandoned Sinclair buildings in 2009, and most recently in December, has prompted city, state and federal officials to agree to an emergency demolition of the plant buildings.

Tim White, a Cedar Rapids attorney for one of 11 demolition contractors bidding for the city's demolition contract, cited Green's 2007 report at the City Council meeting last night and in a court proceeding on Wednesday afternoon to no avail.

White made note of mention in the Green report of lead, arsenic, PCBs and petroleum substances on the Sinclair site. However, the DNR's Sanfillipo on Thursday said those materials were in the soil at the site, and he said the buildings are being removed, not the soil, in the proposed Sinclair demolition.

Despite attorney White's arguments, the City Council voted Wednesday evening to insist that the Sinclair debris go to the Site 1 landfill, and late Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge declined to grant White's request for a temporary injunction to stop the city's award of a demolition contract.

In the end, White did not need the injunction because the council opted to throw out its bids for the Sinclair demolition and start over.

Council member Chuck Swore said last night that demolition companies in the new round of bidding that do not want to take the material to Site 1 should not bid on the work.

The firm that White represents, Rachel Contracting of St. Michael, Minn., had wanted to take the Sinclair debris to a cheaper Illinois landfill with a liner even though the city's bid specifications did not allow for that.

Council member Tom Podzimek, who also sits of the local solid waste agency board, asked Swore on Wednesday evening if the city, in its new round of bidding, ought to see if the Sinclair debris can be deposited at the agency's Site 2 landfill at County Home Road and Highway 13, which has a liner. Site 1, which was reopened after the June 2008 flood to take in flood debris, does not have a liner.

Swore said Site 2 is not able to handle the material now. Karmin McShane, the solid waste agency's executive director, has said Site 2 only has one working cell for solid waste for now - a new cell is coming on line in late summer - and so doesn't have the room to handle regular waste and the asbestos-containing Sinclair waste, which must be handled in a special way.