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Landfill manager warns of increasing lithium-ion battery fires, urges protective measures
Summary
The county landfill reported a rise in lithium-ion battery fires, called for enhanced PPE and faster suppression options, and requested state coordination on best practices for handling such incidents.
Chris Bolton (title in transcript: landfill presenter) told the commission that lithium-ion batteries are increasingly causing fires at the county landfill and that the county is coordinating with the state to identify best practices and mitigation measures.
Bolton said the landfill is seeing frequent fires — “anywhere from one to two, sometimes three a week” — and that “99% of them are from lithium ion batteries.” He said some fires have significant costs when a liner or buried infrastructure is damaged and noted the operational difficulty of extinguishing thermal-runaway events in the pit.
The landfill is conducting more frequent water sampling and participating in a DEQ recycling survey, and Bolton said staff are exploring options such as increased PPE, filtration systems, faster water-supply access to the pit and possible suppression systems. He said the county is coordinating with other state landfills and the DEQ to develop a statewide committee to craft best practices for handling lithium-ion battery fires; several landfills have already sent letters to the state on the problem.
Bolton described response tactics used at the county site: isolating and pushing burning material out of the active pit, applying water and mixing to fully extinguish and setting the material aside for monitoring. He said the hazard remains costly and dangerous when such fires ignite while staff are not present.
Bolton asked for consideration of capital and operating budget adjustments to improve the county’s response capacity, including water access and PPE upgrades.
