Colerain Township neighbors sound off over Rumpke's controlled blasting

Colerain Township neighbors are sounding off about blasts happening at the Rumpke landfill.

Many say their homes shake as expansion over the last few years moves the landfill closer to their neighborhood.

Rumpke says it’s been using controlled blasts for landfill expansion since the 1980s, in order to loosen up rock so crews can excavate and build new landfill cells.

“We do utilize blasting techniques, because other excavation just would not be able to keep up with the demand of the amount of trash that continues to come into the site,” said Rumpke spokesperson Molly Yeager.

In 2019, the Ohio EPA approved a large expansion East of the landfill in Colerain Township. Neighbors say that’s when their issues started to ramp up.

“The house shakes, windows rattle,” said neighbor Stephen Shad.

“You can feel a rumble coming, like up off the ground here,” said neighbor Marian Foley.

“The whole house shakes,” said neighbor Mike Hacker.

These long-time Colerain neighbors live on Stout Road. Standing on their block, if you look out past the interstate, you can see their long-time neighbor, Rumpke.

“People on Facebook sometimes they’ll say, you live next to landfill. You knew it was there,” said neighbor Sandra Webb.

Hacker, Webb’s husband chimed in, saying “wasn’t like that when I moved in, couldn’t even see it.”

Webb and Hacker have lived in their home more than 20 years.

Shad has been in the house next door since the 80s, when Rumpke first began using controlled blasts.

“What’s different about what’s happening with these blasts today?” WLWT’s Daisy Kershaw asked.

“Well, now I feel them. I didn’t feel them years ago when they started. I didn’t even know they were doing it,” said Shad.

WLWT asked neighbors when they began noticing the blasts.

“In the last five, six years,” said Shad. “Seven, eight years ago,” said Webb.

They say that’s when they began noticing something else, too.

“Our walls, bricks are cracking on the back wall here, which faces Rumpke,” said Hacker.

Webb showed us cracks running up her living room walls. Shad showed cracks running up a bedroom wall and their exterior bricks.

There’s no evidence that any damage to nearby homes came from these blasts, but WLWT brought neighbors’ concerns to Yeager.

She says they monitor blasts to make sure they are measuring within the legal limits required for controlled blasting per Ohio Revised Code, and said the data shows they’re well within limit.

“Seismographs are placed all around the site that monitor each blast and make sure that we’re well below those limits that would even cause cosmetic damage to a house. So, we’re talking about some cracks that you would have, like in plaster; we are well below those limits, based on all seismograph data,” said Yeager.

Rumpke says it’s constructed roughly 99 acres as part of the expansion and plans to construct the remaining 141 acres over the next several decades.

Based on their agreement with Colerain Township, they’re permitted to blast Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The last blast was July 9.