California landfill operators considering expansion options

The operators of a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill in central California are examining expansion options thanks to courtroom and legislative victories that have helped clear prior hurdles.

According to an online report from the Fairfield, California-based Daily Republic newspaper, the owners of the Potrero Hills Landfill in Solano County, California, have “weathered a legal storm” and the landfill is now “poised for expansion” after having launched a landfill-gas-to-energy plant.

The landfill’s owner, Texas-based Waste Connections Inc., says without expansion the landfill will fill up within a few years, and received support from Solano County officials and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. Both entities determined the expansion project would not cause harm to a nearby marsh, as claimed by expansion opponents.

Among the legal hurdles faced by the landfill was a former voter initiative to prohibit MSW from outside the county to enter the landfill. That law was eventually deemed unconstitutional.

Solano County is located northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area and its landfill accepts MSW from other counties, including the wine growing region of Napa County.

According to the Daily Republic, Waste Connections has created a berm and placed polyethylene and geotextile lining materials in a newly created landfill cell that was opened in 2014 but has rapidly filled up. Similar preparations are being made for parts of the remaining 215 acres that will be converted to lined cells.

Waste Connections also has partnered with Michigan-based DTE Biomass Energy and South Carolina-based Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, to operate the Potrero Hills Energy Producers plant at the site, which converts landfill methane gas into “enough energy for about 10,000 homes each day,” according to the Daily Republic.

The firm also operates a recycling facility onsite that handles appliances, electronic scrap, cardboard and construction materials.