Iowa Landfill Blaze Produces Diesel-Like Byproduct

A days-long fire at the Iowa City Landfill has created a combustible substance that officials are sending to western Nebraska for incineration.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen said that the pyrolytic oil is a byproduct of the blaze that has been burning since May 26.

The fire has produced up to 150,000 gallons of the diesel-like oil.

City Public Works Director Rick Fosse told the newspaper that the landfill’s leachate collection system has captured most of the oil, which has been moved into a lagoon on a corner of the landfill. Some of the oil has been collected at the city lift station at Napoleon Park.

But none has been detected at the city sewage plant, said Geoff Fruin, assistant to the city manager.

The city doesn’t like storing oil in the lagoon, Fosse said.

“It’s a material that we don’t want to keep any longer than we have to,” Fosse said. “It’s about like diesel fuel.”

Fruin said he estimates that removing and transporting the oil to western Nebraska for destruction is equal or maybe even higher than the cost of putting out the 7.5-acre landfill fire, which has been estimated to cost between $50,000 and $100,000.

The city will be looking for another incineration operation that’s closer to Iowa City, with an eye toward saving the city some money. And the city has begun storing the oil in tanks to reduce the threat of an ignition in the open-air lagoon.

“This will be a continual effort for really several days, perhaps weeks ahead, even as the fire burns under the clay cover that we’re putting over it,” Fruin said.

A new effort to control and extinguish the fire includes a stirring of the piles of tires so they burn faster and then covering them to suppress the burning.

Fire officials have said using water or foam to try to put out the fire would be too expensive and labor intensive while creating damaging runoff. So the decision was made to let the fire burn itself out.

Johnson County Public Health Director Doug Beardsley has compared the air quality to that found in urban areas with oil refineries.

Area residents have been advised to minimize their exposure to the smoke, which contains potentially harmful chemicals and particulate matter. Those with respiratory problems, young children and the elderly should consider staying in their homes when the plume shifts to their vicinity.