A sewage dump site on Butternut Road needs to be shut down, Burton resident Wes Hellegers said at the Feb. 28 Geauga County Board of Health meeting.
A sewage dump site on Butternut Road needs to be shut down, Burton resident Wes Hellegers said at the Feb. 28 Geauga County Board of Health meeting.
Hellegers first contacted Geauga Public Health Administrator Adam Litke and Environmental Health Director Dan Lark on Feb. 22, and was subsequently invited to speak at the meeting. The dumping issue has been ongoing since 2006, Hellegers said, adding while he had contacted the board of health for help in previous years, his concerns were not addressed.
Hellegers alleged Gary Kaufman, of G. Kaufman’s Septic Tank Cleaning, has been dumping large amounts of sewage onto 22 acres of land on Butternut Road.
“It started out with one truck on 1.65 acres, with (former Health Commissioner Robert Weisdack). Weisdack approved it to go up to 6 acres. Then, (former Health Commissioner Tom Quade), before he was fired, he approved it up to 22 acres,” Hellegers said.
Though the property used to be a farm, it is now only used for commercial sewage dumping, he said, adding Kaufman is the only sewage hauler in the county permitted to dump somewhere other than a cesspool.
Hellegers has been documenting the situation for as long as he has been protesting it. He claimed all approvals were verbal.
Included in a file he provided the board were countless emails to officials, ranging from the county to the state level, asking for the dumping to be stopped.
Hellegers said his objections come from a place of concern for the surrounding community.
“It’s 150 feet from the Amish school,” he said of the dump site. “This new one that went in, it’s called Butternut Acres, 50 kids go there. Now, there’s another school that’s (1,000 feet) from the dump site, Meadow Glen School, I think that’s the name of it.”
Also listed in the file are Berkshire Community School and Kent State University – Geauga at 3,030 feet and Camp Burton at 3,030 feet, as well as an Amish settlement and a number of non-Amish communities.
“They’re putting like 900,000 gallons a year on this dump site,” Hellegers said, noting he was concerned about the area’s wells.
“The odor in the summer is terrible, so I doubt it can be perfectly treated with hydrated lime, which should kill the odor,” he said.
Hellegers’ file also notes concerns about runoff into local wetlands, rivers and streams, which would eventually connect to and pollute Lake Erie.
While the local Amish community would like to speak with GPH about the dumping, Hellegers said, there was a specific process they would like GPH to follow.
He described a conversation with his Amish neighbors.
“They recommend that they would not come here tonight. Their procedure for expressing their opinion of the dumping in their backyard, you have Dan (Lark) approach them and say, ‘We’d like to hear your side of the story,’ then they can comment,” Hellegers explained, going on to say his neighbors would like either Lark or Litke to contact the presidents of the Amish schools.
Hellegers bid the department to shut the site down.
“It doesn’t belong there. It doesn’t meet any of the latest requirements for a dump site. It’s not a rural area, it’s packed with people. So that’s my plea, to please shut down the dump site to save a lot of kids’ lives,” he said.
Board President Carolyn Brakey asked Hellegers how the area is zoned. Hellegers told her it is R5, a residential district.
“I did nothing for way too long,” Hellegers told the board. “When they put the new Amish school in there, that just ignited me, I said ‘You can’t be spreading this stuff to these little kids, they don’t get vaccinated, they don’t get any protection or nothing.’”
Hellegers said he had tried and failed to obtain a number of documents regarding the dump site.
“I’ve never been able to get the test for pathogens on the soil. They’ve never given me the test for heavy metals. They’ve never given me (Environmental Protection Agency) sewage permits. I never got a (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems) permit, a memo of understanding between the EPA and the Geauga Health Department, I never got any of this,” he said.
Lark visited Hellegers’ property and was shown around, Litke said. Hellegers described taking Lark to his Amish neighbors, as well, in order to show the splash fence Kaufman had installed.
“Kaufman put up a tacky, wooden splash fence in their backyard. Because so much feces spread all over their pasture,” Hellegers said.
Board member Dr. Mark Hendrickson questioned if the rest of the board would be able to visit the area.
Litke responded a few of them could, but not enough for a quorum.
Kaufman did not respond to a request for comment prior to press deadline.
