Anchorage landfill launches new lithium battery policy after 2020 fire

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – While most people were eating turkey and visiting family on Thanksgiving evening in 2020, Anchorage Fire crews were quickly at work putting out a fire at the Landfill of Anchorage fire that landfill foreman Kevin Sager said was the largest they had ever seen on site.

“It was pretty massive,” Sager said Tuesday. “The AFD spent the whole day here spreading it. We used our equipment to push trash onto the liner to help put out the fire.

The probable cause of this massive fire? A single lithium battery.

Last summer, a compromise was discovered in the landfill liner – specifically located in cell nine – where leachate flowed into the ground rather than following the channel designed to carry it to the leachate ponds .

Leachate is defined as any liquid that touches the waste before sinking to the bottom of the pile. Even though authorities have managed to pump most of the leachate from the ground, the next step is slightly trickier.

Acting Solid Waste Director Kelli Toth said to literally get to the bottom of the problem, crews will now have to dig a hole this summer at the burn site – about 50 feet deep and an acre wide – in order to inspect the liner and get a better idea of ​​what caused the fire in the first place.

But in doing so, Toth said Anchorage could potentially expect a particularly stinky summer.

“Landfill gases tend to migrate toward the path of least resistance,” Toth said. “So when you pile a pile of trash on top of themselves – three years' worth of trash piled on top of themselves – the landfill gases will find their easiest route. So, by digging up three years of waste, measuring 50 feet high and over 540 feet wide, it is possible that landfill gases could easily escape from this hole.

While there is no way yet to determine the exact cause of the fire, authorities say that given the size and intensity of the fire, the culprit is likely lithium batteries thrown into landfill with household waste.

Based on this assumption, Toth said it implemented a mandatory policy requiring everyone to separate lithium batteries from the rest of their waste and dispose of them at household hazardous waste facilities located at landfills and central transfer stations. from the city.

“Don't throw them away, just assume – you don't even have to try to figure out what it is, what type of battery it is, we make it simple,” said Ed Tracy, responsible for the hazardous waste facility. “You can deposit up to £40 per day for free here, so there are no charges just for batteries.

“Just bring them in and don’t throw them in the trash.” »

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