WOODBINE – Some may believe Avalon’s hill-like sand dunes to be the highest elevation on the peninsula. Think again. That dubious distinction belongs to something few routinely see, and something less eye-appealing. It is something every man, woman and child who lives in Cape May County had a part in building. That man-made creation is the mountain of decaying trash at Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority’s Sanitary Landfill on the Woodbine-Upper Township border.
Presently estimated by MUA officials at 100 feet in height, by the end of its projected 90-year lifespan, they believe it may possibly reach 255 feet, despite ongoing, aggressive efforts that include single-stream recycling, something meant to bolster recycling by making it easier.
The double-lined landfill, in operation for nearly 30 years, (it began operations in May 1984 on 51 acres), is filling its third of three cells on 42 adjacent acres, according to an October 2013 report. It is also the workplace for about 25 MUA employees.
Each cell is between 15-18-acres and holds a variety of garbage including chicken bones, coffee grounds, plastic foam, diapers, grapefruit rinds and last Fourth of July’s barbecue refuse, in fact anything that cannot be recycled. The landfill can handle up to 2,000 tons of refuse per day, which is needed to accommodate the summer population influx.
At the bottom of that rotting mound is a 60-mil plastic liner (household trash bags are normally 3 mil). That liner protects groundwater from leachate infiltration, according to Charles Norkis, MUA executive director. He escorted the Herald on a Dec. 11 tour of the 93-acre landfill, situated on 478 acres owned by the MUA. The authority has permits for 147 acres for landfill, ample for future trash disposal.
In May 2006 the New Jersey Pinelands Commission adopted an amendment to its management plan to allow landfilling to occur on an additional 74 acres. Final approvals were received in 2009 from Pinelands Commission and state Department of Environmental Protection. That permission means five additional cells (G-K) and use of a “vertical wall” design at the base of those new cells, which should extend the landfill’s life another 80 years, to 2093.
Liquid (leachate) from that garbage is collected and piped from each cell (A-F are the designations) and collected in two, 750,000-gallon holding tanks. On a daily basis between eight and 10, 6,000-gallon tanker trucks haul the leachate from those tanks to Seven Mile-Middle Wastewater Treatment Facility in Swainton.
Norkis said the authority has embarked on a $90,000 feasibility study, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for construction of a 12-mile pipeline from the landfill to the treatment plant to eliminate those costly truck trips. He estimated such a pipeline would carry 30 million gallons of leachate annually.
Since the county’s residents will continue to generate ever greater amounts of refuse, preparations are being made by the authority for sixth, or G cell, Norkis said. At present the ground is being dewatered prior to the placement of the vinyl liner.
The entire side of one active cell is overlaid with a vinyl tarp-like cover. Old tires tied to each other with rope hold down the covering. While the MUA accepts old tires, at $300 per ton, Norkis noted there is a $130 per ton cost just to get rid of them, so as many as possible are pressed into service to weigh down the vinyl cover. There are limited uses at the present for recycled tires, he said.
Those covers keep out rain, so that extra water does not filter through the piles of garbage.
As he drove past Cell A, the original cell from prior decades, Norkis noted the vegetation that has grown over it. A variety of wildlife is often seen on those slopes, he said, including deer. That original cell has compacted between 30 and 35 feet, Norkis said. A by-product of the decomposition produces methane.
Large wind screens are placed on one side of another active cell to prevent, as much as possible, wind from blowing away the refuse. A bulldozer was busy pushing loads of refuse recently dumped by municipal trash loaders from the county’s northern end. Seagulls filled the air around the heavy equipment.
In summer, the MUA has an employee detailed to do as much as is possible to keep the gulls from atop the cell, Norkis said. One reason is to minimize complaints from nearby campgrounds which may experience a variety of material on their property dropped by gulls.
The authority also does its utmost to keep gulls away because of its proximity to Woodbine Municipal Airport, Norkis said.
Asked whether the MUA could accept the back-bay dredge material from Stone Harbor’s Site 103, Norkis said it would not be porous enough to allow water to flow through, and thus would cause more water to run off the cells.
Municipalities from the southern end of the county haul their trash to the Burleigh transfer station on Shunpike Road, Middle Township. From there, 18-wheelers haul the trash to the Woodbine site.
As Norkis drove around the mountainous cells, although some methane was detected, the authority earlier that day unveiled its three methane-powered generators that convert unwanted landfill gas into electricity. As reported in the Dec. 18 edition, the generators will provide electricity for the landfill, while excess electric will be fed into the PJM Grid via Atlantic City Electric lines.
Norkis pointed to a series of five white tank-like units on which was painted, “Scrubber.” The function of those units is to remove excess moisture and other contaminants from the gas prior to its entrance into pipelines for the generators. While the MUA unveiled its three newest generators Dec. 11, two 2007-era 150-kilowatt generators continue to produce electricity powered by methane.
While the permitted segment of the landfill is filling with trash, recycling is diverting a great deal of assorted material. Norkis ventured a guess that without the county’s extensive recycling program, the landfill’s useful life would be reduced by 35-40 percent.
Rows of mulch, piled into hills wait spring. That is when landscapers and homeowners will seek out, by truckloads, the once-undesirable material that was tree branches, pallets, leaves and similar material. Some is dyed red, but that once popular color has faded from favor, said Norkis. Modern homeowners and landscapers have been using more black mulch than any other color, he said.
Some of that mulch may contain this past Yuletide’s natural, decoration-free Christmas trees. They are accepted at no cost and are chipped and given back to the general public at no charge, according to the report.
Before the MUA landfill accepted them, county forests were littered with discarded “white goods.” Now that the MUA accepts refrigerators; washers and dryers, old stoves and freezers fewer are found in woods, Norkis said. Units containing Freon have the coolant removed before scrap metal is taken to a wholesaler, Norkis said.
Discarded electronic goods including desktop and laptop computers, printers, storage towers, are recycled and sent to firms that recover the metals contained within their memory boards and internal drives.
Because of that acceptance of old hardware, Norkis believes the county’s woodlands are cleaner, and thus the environment is improved. The landfill can also accept asbestos and construction and demolition debris.
Finally, the tour made a stop at the Intermediate Processing Facility operated for the MUA by RE-Community Recycling. There, under supervision of plant manager Jimmy Yezzo, the authority’s single-stream recycling program is put into action.
Trucks loaded with assorted paper, plastic, glass and metal dump their municipal waste cargoes onto the cement floor of a receiving area. From there, a front-end loader places the material on a conveyor belt.
From there, a series of human and machine stations separate the good from the bad and ugly.
Speeding the sorting process for plastic is automatic, ultra-violet reader that can direct a variety of plastics out of the waste stream to proper recycling bins.
By the end of processing, nearly 1,000-pound bales of aluminum cans and plastic bottles await purchase by firms that turn them into new products. Yezzo said markets in China are large buyers of cardboard.
Prices fluctuate on the world market, Norkis and Yezzo noted. One thing is certain, buyers hold Yezzo responsible for receipt of top-quality recycled material. Paper buyers, he noted, want to ensure what they buy is dry and useable, not water-logged.
Those buyers will frequently visit the recycling plant to ensure that the process is rigid, Yezzo said.
He estimated that less than 10 percent of goods that start through the sorting process are rejected as not recyclable. That is a number of which Yezzo was very proud, not only because it points to the rigorous sorting, but that will translate into extended life for the landfill.
