11/14/2009 10:00:00 PM
Iron King Mine fine: $71,100
ADEQ fines landowner for illegal dumping, demolition at mine
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Matt Hinshaw/
The Daily Courier
Clayton Kuhles overlooks the "glory hole" at the Iron King Mine site in this May 6, 2009, file photo. |
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Courier file
ADEQ inspections in January, May and August of 2008 showed that the landfill was filled in without a permit or an approved closure plan. |
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A Maricopa County Superior Court judge this past week ordered the owner of a landfill and demolition site at the Iron King Mine in Dewey-Humboldt to pay $71,100 in fines for illegally disposing solid waste and asbestos near an aquifer.
With the help of an Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) investigation, the state brought 10 civil counts against Prescott businessman Clayton Kuhles' company, Kuhles Capital LLC, which owned and operated the Iron King Mine Waste Reduction Facility on Iron King Road.
Monday in Phoenix, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Barth instructed Kuhles Capital to pay a $46,100 penalty related to the first seven counts and $25,000 connected to the ninth count. (There were no fines associated with the eighth count: "defendant failing to comply with an ADEQ abatement order.")
"The judge's ruling underscores the importance of pollution prevention and careful management of asbestos and hazardous waste at landfills," ADEQ Director Benjamin Grumbles said. "ADEQ is committed to working with businesses to reduce risks to Arizona's citizens and natural resources, and this ruling sends a strong signal that it doesn't pay to put people and aquifers at risk."
In the indictment, ADEQ officials said Kuhles Capital first failed to obtain a required Aquifer Protection Permit from the state for its solid waste landfill - a permit Kuhles claimed he applied for and received in the first week of January 2001.
State officials added that Kuhles, who owns 85 to 90 acres at the mine, did not thoroughly inspect a building on his property that had asbestos in it before tearing it down. Kuhles was supposed to remove the asbestos and properly dispose of it prior to the demolition.
Asbestos can cause cancer and respiratory diseases in humans, and doctors say there is no known safe exposure level to the fibrous silicate material.
"The findings of the court in this case are consistent with the complaints that the town has related to the demolition," Dewey-Humboldt Town Manager William Emerson said Friday. "A permit is required from the town before demolition, and we certainly would have made sure that the asbestos issues were addressed in coordination with ADEQ had the owner contacted us in advance."
When attempting to reach Kuhles for comment on the ruling, a woman who declined to identify herself answered his phone and said that Kuhles was in India and isn't expected to return until late December or early January.
In April, ADEQ and the Arizona Attorney General's Office filed a civil complaint against Kuhles Capital for not conducting a thorough asbestos survey before demolishing the building; improperly handling regulated asbestos-containing materials; and failing to train at least one on-site employee in asbestos removal regulations.
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Four years ago, ADEQ issued a compliance order to Kuhles Capital, which compelled the company to stop its landfill from accepting un-permitted waste.
The following year, the department gave the company a notice of violation because it did not screen and remove waste at the landfill - something the compliance order required.
Clayton Kuhles, who has owned property at the mine since 1999 and has business tenants who pay him to use the land, has consistently denied any illegal dumping at the 2-acre landfill.
Kuhles said he was in the waste hauling and recycling business 10 years ago. Before buying the property, a Phoenix-based landfill-engineering specialist told him that an old open pit, or "glory hole," at the mine could be used as a landfill for dumping construction demolition debris.
Kuhles claims that after he got the Aquifer Protection Permit from ADEQ in 2001 he started developing the then-150-foot deep pit into a landfill, which has been inactive since September 2005 and has a foot of dirt covering its contents.
"The pit was left as is until the permit was approved," Kuhles said in an interview with the Courier earlier this year. "At that point, we started developing a road into it and other infrastructure."
Kuhles said he allowed his company's trucks as well as other businesses and individuals to dump materials such as drywall, wood and concrete - as long as it complied with the permit - while manually extracting and shipping out recyclables in trucks.
"At the time, we had a scale and the vehicles were weighed in and weighed out, and they were charged a fee, just like at any other landfill," he said. "Everything in that landfill is completely compliant with the department (ADEQ)."
However, the state says that not until July 2007 did Kuhles Capital begin to close its landfill and demolish structures on the site. Shortly after, ADEQ issued Kuhles an Aquifer Protection Permit.
State prosecutors say Kuhles agreed to provide a closure and post-closure plan for the landfill, and even submitted a draft closure plan, but he did not pay the state's required fee for doing so.
ADEQ inspections in January, May and August of 2008 showed that the landfill was filled in without a permit or an approved closure plan.
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On Feb. 14, 2008, ADEQ inspectors, in response to a complaint, say they saw that Kuhles was demolishing a building at the demolition site.
Twelve days later, ADEQ officials issued an abatement order to stop the demolition because samples that ADEQ inspectors took from the wreckage tested positive for asbestos. ADEQ officials added that no one conducted an asbestos survey.
Kuhles said the building's roof collapsed under earlier heavy snows and he thought the structure was an imminent safety hazard for his tenants and their customers. He added that he submitted an extensive cleanup plan for the site to ADEQ and the town.
"The asbestos abatement contractor did a profile of the building (and others on the property) and he found that the joint compound in one of the buildings had small amounts of asbestos fiber," he said. "All the material is at the site and not in the landfill."
The state's testing of the demolished building showed that siding materials, roofing paint and floor tiles from the demolition contained chrysotile asbestos at levels exceeding 1 percent.
State and federal law requires regulated asbestos-containing material to be wetted and covered, which inspectors did not observe during two subsequent visits to the site.
ADEQ performed inspections at the demolition site on March 10, March 18 and May 20, 2008, which revealed Kuhles completed the demolition and removed asbestos-containing materials from the site without complying with an abatement order.
"This case represented an unnecessary and highly dangerous disregard for the health of the Dewey-Humboldt community," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.
Emerson said Kuhles Capital also violated town code when it demolished the building with asbestos. The town's municipal court also is currently pursuing a case against Kuhles.
"Asbestos is a health hazard that can affect the whole community," Emerson said. "Sometimes it is difficult or expensive to minimize the impact one property has on its neighbors, but effective communication between all the parties, including the town, can make the best of a bad situation.
"That did not happen here, unfortunately, but we hope that future discussions about the mine area will be more timely and helpful for everyone involved."
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In addition, ADEQ's complaint cited Kuhles Capital with other violations, including accepting un-permitted wastes, such as household waste and tires, into the landfill, which Kuhles denies.
State officials said the company failed to monitor groundwater and landfill gas; submit a landfill closure plan to ADEQ; and maintain financial assurance for monitoring the landfill after it closed.
However, Kuhles said he has three methane monitoring wells at the landfill that check for the gas every three months.
"As long as we operated this facility, there has never been a reportable methane issue in any of the monitoring wells," he said. "And there has never been a reportable groundwater (pollution) discharge event at our groundwater monitoring point."
Nonetheless, on Monday, Barth ordered Kuhles Capital to comply with the abatement order and to provide the required closure and post-closure plans for the landfill.
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Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
mad man
we should be sueing this man because all the dust coming from the mine caused my nease to have very very bad respitory problems she was going to the hospital all the time
Posted: Monday, November 16, 2009
Article comment by:
Iron King right in my back yard
Yes, the EPA is involved already. Thanks to this man...(and several other reasons) as to why the houses, including mine, in that area have lost a ton of value. It's not just bad enough with the economy, now we have this on our shoulders too? Will we ever be able to sell our houses, or feel safe with our children and grand-children playing outside with all the toxic chemicals?
Posted: Monday, November 16, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
The posting comments don't take into account the fact that there was a mine there years ago and who knows how much contamination was put there. Here Clayton Kuhles was doing a service to the community by filling up a hole and he was aware of what was going in there for much of the time. The landfill was also used by another Company who didn't keep records so why go after Clayton Kuhles when he has no knowledge of what they put it. Clayton Kuhles is a commendable person and is trust worthy and honest. And what did you toss out in your garbage today - anything toxic? Check your waste before you comment on someone else that you know nothing about.
Posted: Monday, November 16, 2009
Article comment by:
Christopher
Asbestos is a natural earth product. The issue is particle size, and breathing it causes cancer. If it is wet and packed into a landfill it should cause no issues, nor water pollution. It was a common building and electrical insulating materials and in common use until the 80'. There are still buildings with asbestos siding and roofing in use today. Most of the people on this page have also sent asbestos containing products to the landfill themselves. So, let's not freak out without understanding.
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Article comment by:
Hilde..Wher's The Federal EPA ?
71,000. sounds like a slap on the hand. He should be forced to clean up this mess totally. By the way is the Federal EPA involved in this ? Sounds like a monsterous health hazard now and for future generation. This is too big for the State to toy with.
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Article comment by:
Love Canal Re-visted?
Sounds like another "Love Canal" in the making...anyone remember their western New York (Buffalo) history from the 70's??
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Article comment by:
Tar, feathers and a rail anyone?
How long has this been going on? Kuhles gets cited again and again for a decade and keeps on committing more violations! So the pit has been filled in illegally too? Burying the evidence. Who is going to clean all this up?
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
What about the future generations that will feel the ramifacations of Mr.Kuhles. Will he also be responsible to clean his mess. or will the State do it, and then who will pay?
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Article comment by:
tom
The board of supervisors approved this over the objection of community. This is just the reason it was opposed. Where the park that he said they would build not that anyone would use it since the whole area is toxic.
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Article comment by:
Dan McConnell
I have only this to say about Clayton Kuhles, Maybe if he and his company had any regard for his neighbors and not greed all this could have been prevented.
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