State-of-the-art landfill expansion struts its science as well as trash

Certain places make a person feel small ... shorelines, mountaintops, monasteries.

The same thing just might happen in the unlikeliest spot - at the bottom of the new pit, called a cell, at the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency's Site 2 landfill.

The agency is holding an open house today to show off the $3.3 million, 9-acre cell that will take garbage from the metro area and every corner of Linn County. The new cell is the second of a five-phase expansion, which has been in the plans for some time and which will extend the life of the Site 2 landfill to 2035 or longer.

The base of the new cell is 60 feet below ground level and some 120 feet below the top of a previous cell, now filled, capped, grass-covered and towering overhead.

It will take more than five years for the 190,000 tons of garbage that come into the Site 2 landfill every year to grow, load by load, 120 feet higher and bring the life of the latest cell to conclusion.

Karmin McShane, the solid waste agency's executive director, hopes that the public's visit to the base of the cell will help people see the science, engineering and care that go into a modern-day landfill.

“We want to show them that it is a state-of-the-art facility, and it is a public service, and here's how we do it and why we do it,” she said. “People who remember the open dump of 1972 here will be pleasantly surprised.”

McShane hopes, too, that people will come to think about trash in a more thoughtful light.

The pit's base and sides are in pristine shape. Underneath is a layer of clay, which is covered by a liner of high-density polyethylene. Over the liner is sand on the pit's bottom and a layer of tire chips on the sides to keep the slopes stable and to improve drainage. In total, there is material from 11,000 tons of old tires, an amount equal in weight to a little more than 1 million tires, according to the agency.

Those who stand in the bottom of the new cell can look to the side and see the Phase 1 expansion cell, which opened in 2008 and is busy at work, taking in garbage. You're apt to hear McShane and other agency employees talk about recycling, too.

“I want them to see what they are throwing away,” she said. “When I watch loads come in, I'm like, ‘Man, we can do a better job.' ”

The Site 2 landfill's history reaches back to 1972 when it opened as the county landfill. The city, county and the county's small towns joined forces in 1994 to create one solid waste agency. The agency then took control of this landfill and the Site 1 landfill, known as Mount Trashmore and looming just south of downtown Cedar Rapids.

The agency closed Site 1 in July 2006 but reopened it in 2008 for flood debris.

In 2005, the city of Marion went to court to block the agency's decision to expand Site 2 on Marion's border but later dropped the lawsuit. In turn, the agency agreed to limit the height of new cells at the landfill and to increase the buffer from 300 feet to more than 1,000 feet between the landfill and adjoining property.

The 264-acre site will use 118 acres to landfill garbage. The agency also is constructing a wetland and trails and has built a 20-acre pond that will one day be a fishing venue.

In addition, the agency has reserved a spot on its nine-member board for a Marion resident.

“I don't like landfills, and I don't like the fact that we have one out there,” said Charlie Kress, a member of wastenotIOWA who fills Marion's board spot, “but this is probably the best-run landfill you can find.”

WastenotIOWA is an anti-landfill group working to bring plasma arc technology to Marion as an alternative to landfilling.