Galena residents seek environmental testing at southeast Kansas landfill
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What is the history and layout of the Galena construction‑demolition landfill?
A 70-acre construction and demolition landfill sits just a few blocks off of the downtown area in Galena, Kansas. In fact, a scenic stop on the well-known and iconic Route 66 is located right by the landfill. Tourists fill the area throughout the day, especially this year as the route celebrates its 100-year anniversary, and many of their photos feature the landfill in the background. Established in 1993, the landfill was just a few acres. Then in 2011, when an EF5 tornado hit Joplin, Missouri, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment agreed to expand the landfill and allow it to accept debris from Joplin as that city began rebuilding efforts. As a construction and demolition landfill, there are limits on what can be dumped there, and that also means the site isn't required to have a liner, which it does not.
To add to the challenge at the site, it is built atop a Superfund site that's being mediated by the EPA after more than 100 years of lead and zinc mining in the community. Until a few years ago, residents didn't seem to have much trouble with the landfill. But in the past two or three years, bad smells began to randomly fill up the downtown area, percolating through stores and also the homes that are located around the landfill. Welcome to the Kansas Reflector podcast. This is reporter Morgan Chilson. I visited the town of Galena last week to talk with residents about their concerns and to see the landfill for myself. While there, I visited with Ashley Wells, who lives near the landfill and is a Galena resident, and Peyton Kessler, who is the Cherokee County Health Officer and a registered nurse.
They are two that are active in trying to find answers and make sure that the landfill is not polluting the air in Galena. We spoke in a local restaurant, so I apologize for some of the background noise. Well, I appreciate you guys both being here with me today, and I just want to get an idea so that people who are not in the area and haven't followed this can understand some of the frustrations and what you all are facing. So talk to me a little bit about how you got involved with the Galena landfill and when it started to concern you.
So I had heard of some other citizens in town that they've been complaining about the smell where they live for about five years. Now, I had heard about that. We weren't really experiencing it where we live. That was more would be on the west side of the landfill, more downtown is where they were smelling it. And we live south of that. About three years ago, we started smelling it. And it's definitely worse in the wintertime. What we've been smelling is that hydrogen sulfide, what they have now found to be tested and confirmed that it is hydrogen sulfide. And it's a very strong rotten egg smell. It gets so bad that it comes into our homes. It tends to get worse each year. We did go in front of the city council in January of 2025, my husband and I did, to kind of talk about it again.
Some other people had done it previously. Really didn't get a whole lot from there. I know that that summer of 2025, I think it might have been in September, they did try to put some lime on there, but it obviously did not help the situation. But each year, like I said, it just keeps getting worse. And so this past winter, 2025, it was... It was very bad.
Why are residents suddenly noticing strong hydrogen sulfide odors around downtown?
I had one week, just an example, there was four nights out of seven in a row that I had my house smelling like hydrogen sulfide. Very difficult to sleep when you're sitting there smelling that. It makes you sick to your stomach. It gives you a headache. Some people have even said something about burning eyes and throat. I was going to ask, are there
health concerns?
Yeah, we have been doing some health surveys on our Facebook page. We have a local environmentalist that's been kind of doing those. She has all the data, but she sends those out, collects those to kind of see if there's any symptoms going on on the people that live in this area and see if like there's anything that could be correlating.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the history and layout of the Galena construction‑demolition landfill?
0:00–3:13
2
Why are residents suddenly noticing strong hydrogen sulfide odors around downtown?
3:13–5:48
3
How are community health surveys documenting symptoms from the landfill fumes?
5:48–9:07
4
What testing and monitoring methods are being used, and why are they considered insufficient?
9:07–11:39
5
Which agencies are responsible for oversight, and how have they responded to the complaints?
11:39–15:02
6
What is causing the ongoing smoldering fire and how might it affect air quality?
15:02–17:56
7
How are residents organizing (Facebook page, council petitions) to demand better action?
17:56–20:42
8
What solutions do locals want—continuous monitoring, additional testing, or landfill closure?
20:42–24:18
Speakers
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