City of Columbia landfill worker recovering after machine accident
Marie Moyer
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
One City of Columbia landfill worker is in recovery Tuesday after he was seriously injured Monday in a machinery accident.
The worker who was seriously injured was operating a hydroseeder that was being pulled by a tractor when it fell into a large hole. The worker using the tractor also reportedly had some bruises following the incident.
“We were really thankful when the fire department and EMS showed up to lend a hand,” City Landfill Superintendent Adam White said. “We’re happy that the employee’s, recovering and getting the medical treatment that he needs.”
Crews were tending to a leachate seep, a leak in the side of a landfill that occurs when decomposing water becomes trapped in the landfill and seeps out. Ideally, water that collects inside of the landfill drains naturally through the dirt and trash and is collected at the bottom, where it is processed and put back into the water.
“Think of a layer cake: you have different sections of the layer cake and then you have the icing in between, those icing sections are the soil, we don’t want a layer cake,” White said. “We want that material to be continuous trash, no soil and our mix so that way that liquid has that free path to move vertically down.”
White said seeps are not common. When treating a leak, White said, crews dig out the area to get to the water, where it is either pumped out or a line is dug to drain it to the bottom of the landfill. Crews use the hydroseeder to spray the sides of the hole with an adhesive material to prevent trash from blowing away during the work.
“It was a combination of weight and angle,” city utilities spokesman Jason West said. “The tractor was backing down a slope, which redistributed the weight of the trailer. The pull of the trailer became too much for the tractor and it began to slide into the trench.”
White added the tractor is still operational and only had minor damage. The department is inspecting the hydroseeder which had the most damage, specifically around it’s motor. The hole is expected to be drained by the end of the day Tuesday and filled by Wednesday.